In the Jailhouse Now

Continuing the back story to Paul’s letter to the Jesus followers at Philippi.

Well, it had been a long day for Paul and Silas, what with preaching the gospel, casting out a python spirit, being hauled before the magistrates because of that, then stripped naked, severely beaten, placed in stocks and thrown into the dungeon (Acts 16:16-24). But it was not quite over yet.

“But at midnight …,” Luke continues, and what follows is not what we would have expected, “… Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God” (v. 25). The Greek word for “pray” here is proseuchomai, turning toward (pros) God in prayer (about which, see The Towardness of Prayer). They were pressing into God, in intense prayer and praise and fellowship.

You can tell what is going on in a person’s heart by listening to the words that come out of their mouth, especially in pressure situations. I’m sure you will agree that Paul and Silas were under intense pressure, but it only pressed them deeper into God and they threw themselves into worship. Luke adds, “And the prisoners were listening to them.” They did not just hear, they were listening, intently. They had great interest in what Paul and Silas were praying and singing, perhaps wondering how they even had the presence of mind and peace of heart to be able to do that.

Suddenly, there was a great earthquake that shook the foundations of the prison. It may have been a natural event but the timing was supernatural. All the doors sprang open and the prisoners were all loosed from their chains (v. 26). John Chrysostom, in one of his ancient homilies on the book Acts, commented on this scene. “This let us also do, and we shall open for ourselves — not a prison, but — heaven. If we pray, we shall be able even to open heaven” (NPNF, First Series, Vol. 11, Homily 36).

The prison warden (a.k.a., the Philippians Jailer) woke up and saw all the doors hanging wide open, and he supposed that the prisoners had all fled. It seemed to him to be the worst night of his life, for he was responsible to see that the prisoners received their due punishments and, failing that, he would be punished in their place. With all the prisoners escaped, his future did not look at all bright, so he drew out his sword and was just about to kill himself (v. 27). But Paul called out to him just in time and said, “Do yourself no harm, for we are all here” (v. 28).

Now, it would be easy at this point to go on and talk about Paul’s encounter with the Philippian Jailer and what happened from there. That was my original intention in this section (and that I will do in the next section). But something in Luke’s report caught my eye and I think it deserves a little bit of our attention.

As miraculous as the timing of the earthquake was that shook them all free, here is something I think might be an even greater miracle: None of the prisoners left. The doors were open, the chains were off — and nobody bolted. “We are all here,” Paul said. Amazing.

Why did they not leave when they had the chance? I think it was because of all they had just witnessed. They heard Paul and Silas, in stocks and deep in prison, singing and praising King Jesus and the power of God — and it preached to them. Then they saw the miraculous power of God shake open the cell doors and break them free from all their chains. Now, instead of running, they wanted to see what God would do next, and I don’t think they were disappointed.

We don’t know what happened after this. Again, Luke does not say and Church history appears to be silent. But it is no real stretch to suppose that some of them became followers of King Jesus, and perhaps when (or if) they were released, they joined together with the others at Philippi who came to know and rejoice in the Lord.

Focus Questions

1. Suppose you had been in that prison that night, what would you think if you heard Paul and Silas loudly singing and praising God?
2. When the earthquake happened, opening the doors and loosing the chains, would you have connected it to what Paul and Silas were singing about?
3. If you the chance to run at that moment, would you have fled? Why or why not?

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Size Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

The Python Lady

Looking at the “back story” of Paul’s letter to the Jesus followers at Philippi, we recently met Lydia, the “Seller of Purple.” Now let’s meet the Python Lady. We do not know her name. All we know is that she had a spirit of divination. Luke tells the story.

Now it happened, as we went to prayer, that a certain slave girl possessed with a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much profit by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and us, and cried out, saying, “These men are the servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation.” And this she did for many days.

But Paul, greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And he came out that very hour. But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. (Acts 16:16-19)

Now, the reason I call her the Python Lady is because of the Greek word for “divination,” which is … python. According to The Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich), python referred to “the serpent or dragon that guarded the Delphic oracle; it lived at the foot of Mt. Parnassus, and was slain by Apollo. Later the word came to designate a spirit of divination, then also a ventriloquist, who was believed to have such a spirit dwelling in his (or her) belly.” This woman was not a ventriloquist as we think of today, but she was being used as a mouthpiece by the demonic spirit that somehow had possession of her.

This young girl followed Paul and his team (which included Silas, Timothy and Luke) around and the demonic spirit in her “cried out” (the Greek word means to croak, like a raven, to scream or shriek): “These men are the servants of the Most High God.” It is unclear what this spirit hoped to gain in that. Various answers have been proposed.

• Perhaps it was to give the impression that Paul and Silas were somehow associated with this spirit, so to blunt their effectiveness.
• Perhaps it was to somehow gain favor with them by affirming them, so that they would not cast out this demonic spirit.
• Perhaps, recognizing that they were from God, it was to gain status as one who identified them and what they were doing.

After a number of days, Paul had finally had enough of it. He turned and cast out the spirit in the name of Jesus the Messiah. It is important to note that Paul’s problem was not with the young slave woman but with that spirit that possessed her. For she was not just enslaved by her human masters, who sought to exploit her unusual ability for their own profit, she was enslaved by the evil entity that invaded her being. In expelling the demonic spirit, Paul set this young woman free. But her masters were not happy about this.

But when her masters saw that their hope of profit was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to the authorities. And they brought them to the magistrates, and said, “These men, being Jews, exceedingly trouble our city; and they teach customs which are not lawful for us, being Romans, to receive or observe.” (Acts 16:19-21)

Paul commanded the demon to “come out” (Greek, exerchomai) and it “came out” (exerchomai). The girls masters realized that, with that, their expectation of profiting from her “was gone” (exerchomai) — literally, that it, too, had come out of her. So, instead of rejoicing that this young woman had been freed from demonic oppression, they forcefully seized Paul and Silas, hauled them before the city authorities and lodged their complaint.

The crowd that had gathered rose up together against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered Paul and Silas to be stripped and beaten. After being severely scourged (let it be sufficient here to note that this was not a sight for the squeamish), they were put into stocks and thrown into the dungeon. (We will look at happened with them next when we continue our “back story.”)

But what about the young slave woman who was now delivered from demonic oppression? Luke does not say and Church history does not really tell us. But having now been set free by the power of King Jesus, perhaps she became a follower of Jesus, just as Lydia and her household had done.

Focus Questions

1. Though specifically led to Macedonia by the Holy Spirit, Paul and associates were beginning to face strong opposition. Should that be surprising?
2. Luke does not tell us the name of this young woman. Why do you suppose that is?
3. At this point, what would you imagine the prospects would be for a healthy, vital and joyful Church being formed at Philippi?

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Size Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Marriage According to Jesus

Some people say that Jesus did not say anything about “gay marriage.” In a way, that is true — He did not recognize any such a thing as “gay marriage,” so He did not mention it. But in another way, what Jesus did say about marriage is very important in regard to that issue. It leaves no room for marriage between a man and a man, or a woman and a woman.

But from the beginning of the creation, God “made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. (Mark 10:6-9)

According to Jesus, marriage is between a male and a female, a man and his wife, joined together by God. That’s how it was from the beginning. Jesus did not change that in His day and He left us no option to change it in ours.

Dan Cathy, president of Chick-fil-a, started a firestorm when he affirmed in a recent interview that marriage is between a man and a woman. “We are very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives. We give God thanks for that,” he said.

Protests, insults, slurs and charges of bigotry have rained down on the company since. The city of Boston, MA has told the restaurant chain that it is no longer welcome to open up locations in that city.

In response, supporters of the chain and the stand it has taken are planning a “Chick-fil-a Appreciation Day” for Wednesday, August 1. That sounds like a good day to go in and have a chicken sandwich and some waffle fries, or in my case, chicken strips and a salad. Come Wednesday, I will be heading over to my local Chick-fil-a store around lunch time to enjoy a nice meal.

Anybody who wants to protest or cast slurs and insults at Chick-fil-a might as well do the same to Jesus. Because their view on marriage is the one Jesus taught.

Confidence in Prayer

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him. (1 John 5:14-15)

When we do not have confidence that God answers our prayers (in the Bible, to “hear” is to answer), we will not be very inclined to pray. A lot of Christians pray with little confidence and little expectation that they will receive the answer they need. Instead, they salt their prayers with “if it be thy will.”

That’s well and good for prayers of consecration, when you’re looking for direction and committing your way to the Lord. But the apostle John is talking here about petitioning prayer, and that is about praying “according to His will.” Now, he is not speaking of the will of God as some mysterious thing that God plays close to the chest and about which we cannot know but must continually guess. That leads to a sort of fatalism, and “if it be Thy will” becomes an escape clause when our prayers are not answered — “Oh, well, I guess that just wasn’t God’s will.”

But John is speaking of the will of God as something that we can know. Indeed, the Scriptures are full of the will of God. He makes it known at every turn — through His words, His deeds, His promises.

So, for example, when we go to the Lord about a particular need, we do not have to add, “If it be Thy will,” because God has already revealed His will about that: “My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19). When we add “if it be Thy will” where God has already revealed His will, we are not standing in faith but in doubt. Faith comes claiming the promise.

When we know and understand the will of God, and we pray according to it, in agreement with it, claiming and confessing it, we can pray with confidence, knowing that God will hear and give us the answer we seek. And when we have confidence that God answers our prayers, we will be going to Him regularly about everything.

Gospel and Kingdom Fulfillment

The more I read the Bible, the more I see what a rich tapestry it is, intricately woven together into a grand design from beginning to end. I see this in the Gospel According to Luke, even from the very first verse, where Luke lays out his purpose. “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us …” (Luke 1:1). It is there in the word “fulfilled.” What he writes is about fulfillment. It is an indication that what we have here is not a brand new story but the continuation, leading to completion, of an old, old story, one that God began with the creation of the heavens and the earth. What is fulfilled is the trajectory of that story, and all the promises God made concerning the Messiah who would come to rule and reign and set everything right in the world.

• We find this echoed when the angel of the Lord comes to the aged Zechariah and announces that he and his wife Elizabeth (also old, and barren) would have a son. This son (John the Baptist) would turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God, that he would, in the words of Malachi, “turn the hearts of the fathers to the children” (Luke 1:16-17, quoting Malachi 4:6).
• We see it again when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she would bring forth a Son who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and His name would be Jesus (which means “Yahweh saves”). He would sit on the throne of King David, to whom He was heir. “And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33).
• We hear it in the song Mary sang, magnifying the Lord because He had now come to rescue His people and set things right in the world, in fulfillment of the promises He made to Abraham and the fathers of Israel” (Luke 1:46-56).
• We hear it again in the song Zechariah sang over his newborn son, John, about how the Lord had remembered His covenant promises to Abraham and the fathers of Israel (Luke 1:68-79).
• We hear it in the song the angels sang when they announced the good news to the shepherds, about the birth of the Savior, the Messiah, the Lord, in the city of King David. The time of God’s messianic peace was at hand (Luke 2:10-14).
• We hear it once more in the song Simeon sang as he held the infant Jesus in his arms. His eyes were now beholding the salvation which God had prepared for all peoples. God’s promise was beginning to be fulfilled, right before his eyes (Luke 2:29-35).
• We see it in Anna, a prophetess who was standing nearby at the time. She had long been looking for “redemption in Jerusalem,” and now here He was in their midst (Luke 2:36-38).
• We see it again in the witness of John the Baptist, who came in fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy about the voice crying in the wilderness, “Prepare the way of the LORD” (Luke 3:4-6, quoting from Isaiah 40). This Messiah, soon to come, would baptize with the Holy Spirit and also with fire (Luke 3:16-17). He would gather in the “wheat” (the just) and burn the “chaff” (the wicked). All this in fulfillment of major prophetic themes and promises in the Old Testament.
• We see it when Jesus was baptized of John (Luke 3:21-22). The Holy Spirit descended upon Him and the voice of the Father said, “You are My beloved son; in You I am well pleased.” This echoes the messianic passage in Isaiah 42:1, “Behold! My Servant whom I uphold, My Elect One in whom My soul delights! I have put My Spirit upon Him.”
• We read it in the genealogy Luke gives, where he traces the lineage of Jesus all the way back through King David, all the way back through Abraham, all the way back to Adam, and from Adam to God (Luke 3:23-38).
• We see it when, after His baptism, Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness, where He was tested by the devil. “If You are the Son of God …” came the taunts, and the offer of all the kingdoms of the world — on the devil’s terms. But Jesus the Messiah would fulfill God’s promise only in God’s way (Luke 4:1-13).

This brings us to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry. He returned from the wilderness “in the power of the Spirit” and began preaching in the synagogues of Galilee and the surrounding regions (Luke 4:14). Mark’s account puts it this way: After the temptation in the wilderness, John was put in prison, and “Jesus came to Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel!” (Mark 1:14-15). Matthew’s account shows Jesus, after the temptation, coming to Galilee with the message, “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). A fuller explanation is given in Matthew 5, in what we call the Sermon on the Mount (I like to call it The Sermon of Heaven on Earth, which is what the kingdom of God is about). It begins, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).

Luke, however, chose to use a different moment to highlight Jesus’ announcement of the kingdom. After the temptation, when Jesus began preaching in Galilee and the regions, He came to Nazareth, his home town. On the Sabbath day, He went into the synagogue, where He was invited to give a Scripture lesson. They handed Him the scroll of Isaiah, which He opened up to the portion we know as Isaiah 61 (there were no chapter and verse divisions in those days):

The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

(Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)

It was a passage about the messianic age and the one anointed with the Spirit of God. It was about good news for the poor, healing the broken, freeing the captive and oppressed. It was about the time of God’s favor, of God’s kingdom coming into the world, with God’s anointed King establishing righteousness (that is, setting everything right).

Jesus closed the scroll, handed it to the attendant and sat down — the sign that He was about to give the lesson. All eyes were on Him as He began to teach:

Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

This was a stunning announcement, and from one of their own, the son of Joseph the carpenter. Jesus knew that many of them would not be willing to accept it, because it did not come in the way and the form they wanted. But He also knew that, though many in Israel would reject it, many Gentiles would gladly welcome it. And that morning, He told the congregation as much. This infuriated them and they wanted to throw him over the cliff — literally.

But He somehow passed through their midst unscathed, and He went to other towns to preach the message. “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43).

There is fulfillment all the way through. But we will stop here for now.

Have You Met Lydia?

There is an old song that goes, “Lydia, oh Lydia! Say, have you met Lydia? Lydia the Tattooed Lady.” Okay, so post this is not about that Lydia. It’s about Lydia the “Seller of Purple.”

Now a certain woman named Lydia heard us. She was a seller of purple from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God. The Lord opened her heart to heed the things spoken by Paul. (Acts 16:14)

Paul and associates, concluding from a dream Paul had that the Spirit of God was leading them to minister the gospel in Macedonia, came to Philippi and settled there for a little while. On the Sabbath, as was his habit, Paul and team went to speak with the Jews about Jesus, whom God had anointed to be King.

However, there was no synagogue at Philippi. Apparently there were not enough Jewish men to form one (Jewish law required a minyan, a quorum of ten Jewish males). But there was a group of Jewish woman who regularly met to pray, at a place outside the city and down by the riverside. So Paul went and spoke with them about King Jesus.

One woman was very prominent in that gathering, a well-to-do woman named Lydia. She was from Thyatira, which was in the region called Lydia (in what is now western Turkey), in Asia Minor. She was a “seller of purple.” The Greek word for this is a technical term that referred to a guild that produced and sold richly dyed cloths. They were, shall we say, “comfortable.”

Another thing we should note about her is that, although she was praying Jewish prayers with the Jewish women, she herself was not Jewish. Luke says she “worshipped God,” which was a way of saying that she was a proselyte. Though a Gentile, she revered the God of Israel. So here she was with the others, and she heard the good news Paul was preaching about Messiah.

In his letter to the believers at Rome, Paul said that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (Romans 10:17). And that is what happened here. The word of God came and opened Lydia’s heart to embrace the message of Jesus the Messiah. God initiated, she responded and the grace of God bore its fruit in her life.

And when she and her household were baptized, she begged us, saying, “If you have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come to my house and stay.” So she persuaded us. (Acts 16:15)

She turned to the Lord, believed and was baptized, which is the pattern we find consistently throughout the book of Acts. It was the natural progression, and Luke speaks of it in passing: “when she and her household were baptized.” Oh, and not only was Lydia herself baptized but so were those of her household who were with her that day. Her faith became a source of influence for them and they believed also and were baptized. Church tradition says that Lydia was baptized by Silas, with assistance from a deacon on the team (see the image at top).

Lydia was so grateful, she invited Paul and his associates to come and stay at her home, “if you judge me to be faithful to the Lord.” The sense of “if” here is “since. Having baptized her, it was obvious that they did indeed consider her faith in the Lord to be real. So they went and enjoyed the hospitality of her house — she simply would not take no for an answer!

There is one more thing that is significant about this encounter. Remember that Paul had originally intended to go to Asia Minor with the gospel, until he was redirected by the Holy Spirit to come to Macedonia instead. And now here at Philippi, in Macedonia, the first one to come to the Lord was a woman from Asia Minor. She is regarded in Church history as the first convert to Christianity in Europe.

Focus Questions

1. How was the grace of God evident in Lydia’s life?
2. How do you suppose God opened her heart to consider the message about Messiah?
3. How was faith evident in Lydia’s life?

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Size Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Dynamics of the Kingdom of God

Christians often speak of the kingdom of God as something that we bring in or advance in the world. But the New Testament uses different language to speak of the dynamics of the kingdom. First, it is God’s kingdom. It comes from and belongs to Him. It comes into the world as a matter of God’s grace and the initiative is always His. Our part is to respond to it in faith. Let’s examine some of the dynamics.

• The kingdom of God has come. Mark tells us that Jesus came preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God: “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:14-15). In saying, “The time is fulfilled,” He was announcing that the wait was over. “The kingdom of God is at hand,” means that it has now come into the world. The proper response is to turn to God and believe the good news about His kingdom, and God’s Anointed King, Jesus.
• We seek the kingdom of God. Jesus said, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matthew 6:33). The Greek word for “seek” does not speak of a casual activity but of an intense and focused one. The kingdom of God has come and we are to make it our priority in everything. In one of His parables, Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it” (Matthew 13:45-46). Seeking the kingdom of God is about our purpose and priority.
• The kingdom of God is anticipated yet unexpected. Jesus said, “But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28). The idea of the Greek word phthano is that what was previously anticipated has now come. Ironically, though, for those who are unprepared for it, the kingdom comes suddenly and unexpectedly. So the J. B. Phillips translation puts it this way: “But if I am expelling devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has swept over you unawares!” On the other hand, there are some who, though they do not expect the kingdom, are ready to receive it. In another of His parables, Jesus said, “the kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid; and for joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field” (Matthew 13:44). The man was not looking for it, but coming upon it, he recognized its value and gave everything for it.
• The kingdom of God is given to us. Jesus said, “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32). It is an inheritance we receive from the Father. When Jesus returns to judge the nations, He will say to those at His right hand, who received His brothers and sisters and the message of the gospel, “Come, you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 25:34).
• We receive the kingdom of God. “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear” (Hebrews 12:28). The Greek word for “receiving” is paralambano, from para, what is near, and lambano, to take hold. Receiving the kingdom means taking it unto ourselves. It is not passive but active. The kingdom is given to us, but we respond to it by taking hold of it.
• The kingdom of God is forcefully advancing. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12 NIV). There is a parallel passage in Luke: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached [Greek, euaggelizo, ‘gospeled’], and everyone is pressing into it” (Luke 16:16). The kingdom of God continues to press into the world, and those ready to receive the good news about it are pressing into it.
• We proclaim the kingdom. The end of the book of Acts finds Paul under house arrest in Rome, but still continuing his ministry there. “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house, and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching the things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31). The word for “preach” here means to announce or proclaim. In the Great Commission, Jesus announced that all authority has been given to Him in heaven and on earth. Then He sent out His disciples to announce the good news to all the world and make disciples of all nations.

The kingdom of God has come into the world because of God’s grace and initiative. It is His kingdom but is given to us as an inheritance. The nature of the kingdom is that it starts small, like a seed, but increases until it pervades everything. Our part is to believe the good news of the kingdom and turn to the King, to take hold of the kingdom, seek the rule and reign of God in everything and proclaim it wherever we go.

Defining the Gospel of the Kingdom

Someone asked me what “the gospel of the kingdom of God” is. Here is a brief answer.

To see what the gospel of the kingdom of God is, let’s look where the Gospel of Mark tells us that Jesus came preaching it (Mark 1:14). We find it in the very next verse, where Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand” (Mark 1:15). The promises of God and the expectations of the prophets in the Old Testament were all about the coming age of God’s kingdom. When Jesus said, “The time is fulfilled,” He was announcing that the wait is over. When He said, “The kingdom of God is at hand,” He was saying that it was now coming into the world.

The kingdom of God is the rule and reign of God. It is the will of God being done earth as it is in heaven, just as Jesus taught us to pray (Matthew 6:10). Jesus preached and taught about the kingdom, what it is about, what it looks like, and He even manifested the kingdom itself through healing diseases, expelling demons and through the other miracles He performed — they revealed the power of God and the kingdom of God.

The end result of the kingdom will be that all things in heaven and on earth will be gathered together into one in Jesus, God’s anointed King (Ephesians 1:10). And all things in heaven and on earth will be reconciled to God by King Jesus, having made peace through the blood of the Cross (Colossians 1:20).

We are not yet at that point, and the kingdom has not yet come in all its fullness. That will not happen until King Jesus returns. But it has already begun. We are presently living in between the times of the beginning of the kingdom and its complete fulfillment. As the apostle John said, “The darkness is passing away and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

Now, within the good news of the kingdom of God, God has provided a plan of salvation by which we can enter into the kingdom and have eternal life (which is the life of the age to come, that is, the life of the kingdom of God). We are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, God's Anointed King. We enter into the kingdom of God by being “born again” through faith in King Jesus (John 3:3). But the plan of salvation is only part of the gospel. The gospel is bigger than whether you and I go to heaven when we die, it is as big as the kingdom of God. Eternal life is not just about the age to come, it is about this life as well, because the age to come, the age of God's kingdom, has already broken through into this present age.

A Dream of Macedonia

Today I am beginning new series, a study through the book of Philippians, Paul’s letters to Jesus believers at Philippi. But first, a little back story.

Open up just about any Bible to the back pages and you will find a section of maps, usually in full color plates. Almost always, you will find one titled something about “Paul’s Missionary Journeys.” Look in the upper left section of that map and there is Italy. To the right you will find Macedonia, and below that, Greece. A little further right, you will see the regions of Galatia and Phyrgia.

Phrygia and Galatia are where the apostle Paul and his mission team had been ministering, about AD 50, and they desired to go on into the western region of Asia Minor. But the Holy Spirit would not let them. So they skirted around to the west until they came to Mysia, to the north. They had thought to cross eastward from there over to Bithynia, but again, the Holy Spirit stopped them. So they continued westward to Troas.

At Troas, Paul had a dream, a vision in the night. In this vision, he saw a man of Macedonia who begged him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” That settled the matter for Paul and his ministry associates. Since the Holy Spirit would not let them minister in Asia or Bithynia, and now Paul had this vision calling them to something that had not been on their itinerary, they concluded that the Lord was calling to them to go to Macedonia and preach the good news about King Jesus there. So they set sail from Troas to the small Greek island of Samothrace. The next day, they landed at Neapolis, and from there came to Philippi, about ten miles inland.

All of this is in Acts 16:6-12, a transitional passage of how the Lord interrupted Paul’s plans and directed his way for a very significant change of course. Some very important times of ministry lay ahead for Paul and his team at Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens, Corinth and Ephesus. However, we will be focusing on what happened at Philippi.

Focus Questions

1. How to you suppose the Holy Spirit might have kept Paul and his associates from going on to Asia and Bithynia?
2. How did those prior actions of the Holy Spirit give greater significance to Paul’s dream?
3. Do you think God still leads us in this way today?

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There is Always Joy!
Paul’s Letters to the Jesus Believers at Philippi
Bite-Size Studies Through the Book of Philippians
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Fresh and Flourishing and Full of Energy

Just saw a little thing on Facebook, perhaps you’ve seen it, too: A sign that breaks down the stages of life into three categories:

• Teen Age: Have Time + Energy … but No Money
• Working Age: Have Money + Energy … but No Time
• Old Age: Have Time + Money … but No Energy

This was said in jest, of course, but even in jest it can have a powerful influence on the way one thinks. We start talking it, we start thinking it, we start believing it … and we might well end up receiving it. My mouth, my mind, my heart and my life were created for better things than that. And I have better things to confess and look forward to when I get old:

Bless the LORD, O my soul …
Who satisfies your mouth with good things,
So that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

(Psalm 103:5)

My wife and I have added this to our table grace at meal times: “You satisfy our desires with good things and renew our youth like the eagle’s. (The other day, Suz asked if I had noticed that my hair is getting darker. Maybe. Sometimes it does look that way to me.)

We are both in our fifties — we call it “middle age,” because we expect to live a long time. But one day when we reach “old age” (maybe when we are about 90 or so), we are looking forward to good things because of the goodness of the LORD.

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the LORD is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

(Psalm 92:12-15)

Instead of saying that we will have no energy when we are old, this is our confession*:

The LORD satisfies our desires with good things and renews our youth like the eagle’s. We will still bear fruit in old age. We will be fresh and flourishing in His courts, and full of energy to declare that our lives our built on Him, and He is right in all He does.

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Personal Confessions from the Psalms
Prayers and Affirmations for a Life of Faith, Happiness and Awe in God
by Jeff Doles

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The Priority of His Presence

Therefore do not worry, saying “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear … But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:31, 33)

Jesus spoke these words in His “Sermon on the Mount” (which I like to call “The Sermon of Heaven on Earth”). But they are reminiscent of the words spoken by Haggai the prophet to the governmental and religious leaders of Judah. Judah was the southern portion of the divided kingdom of Israel. After years of exile in Babylonian captivity, they were finally allowed to return to their homeland (though still under foreign rule).

Work on the restoration of the temple at Jerusalem began, but then stalled for about 15 years because of Persian politics. In that time, the Jews apparently were content to do without it. They had their lives to lead and personal concerns to attend to. They had gotten used to the way things were under the Babylonian system, thinking the way the Gentiles think. And the house of the LORD went neglected.

But the temple of God was never about a building, it was about a presence — the Presence. It was God’s dwelling place among His people, His home on earth. It was the place they knew they could always find Him. To be content without the temple was to be content without the presence of God in their lives.
So God spoke to His people by Haggai the prophet: “Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” (Haggai 1:4). He challenged them to take a good long look at themselves and the shape they were in: “Consider your ways.”

You have sown much, and bring in little;
You eat, but do not have enough;
You drink, but you are not filled with drink;
You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;
And he who earns wages,
Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.

(Haggai 1:6)

In neglecting God, they were ignoring the source of their provision and prosperity, their sustenance and security. God challenged them again to take a hard look at themselves and then to do something about it. “Consider your ways! Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified” (vv. 7-8).

This was on the first day of the sixth month. By the twenty-fourth day of the month, work on the house of the LORD resumed. Three months later, the word of the LORD came to them again:

Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the LORD’s temple was laid — consider it: Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you. (Haggai 2:18-19)

This was not the day things began to change for them — that happened three months earlier, when they decided to make the glory of God their priority. But this was the day the change was confirmed and began to manifest: “From this day I will bless you.”

On this same day, God spoke once more, this time with powerful prophetic force that signaled the time of full and final deliverance for His people.

I will shake heaven and earth.
I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms;
I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms.
I will overthrow the chariots
And those who ride in them;
The horses and their riders shall come down.

(Haggai 2:21-22)

By the time of Jesus, they were still waiting for this prophecy to be fulfilled, for the kingdom of God to be established on the earth. It is hard for me to imagine that Jesus did not have the word of the LORD through Haggai in mind when He spoke these words in His sermon on the mount:

Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Therefore do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:25-33)

The way of the world is to worry about how we will eat, what we will wear, where we will live. It is the mindset of Babylonian captivity. It is a system that is passing away because the kingdom of God has come into the world, in fulfillment of the ancient prophecy.

Our job now is to seek His kingdom (that is, His rule and reign) and His righteousness (that is, His way of doing and setting things right) — the priority of His presence and glory in everything we do. When that becomes our focus we will not have to worry about anything else; God will take care of us. Keep your eyes on King Jesus and follow Him.

The Word by Which We Understand All Words

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)

The Greek word for “word” is logos. It speaks of meaning and purpose, of logic and reason. The Logos John speaks about is a Person who presents the wisdom of God and is, indeed, God. This Word is identified as the one who “became flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). He is Jesus the Messiah, the Son of the Father.

This Word is further identified as the Creator: “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:3). When we read in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth,” it is speaking of the Word, of Jesus. He is the Creator.

John the Baptist gives this testimony concerning Jesus: “For He who God has sent speaks the words of God” (John 3:34). The Word is God and therefore speaks the word of God. Indeed, Jesus is the Word by which we understand all the words of God. John begins his account of the Gospel with the same words that begin the Old Testament, connecting the gospel of Jesus the Messiah with God’s original purpose.

Not only Genesis, but all the Old Testament scriptures speak of Jesus, as He told the Jewish leaders. “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me ... If you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote about Me” (John 5:39, 46).

After His resurrection, Jesus spoke with the Emmaus disciples: “And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself” (Luke 24:27). These were not merely the merely the particular messianic prophecies scattered throughout, but the whole trajectory and thrust of the Old Testament pointed to the fulfillment of all God’s promises and purposes found in the Messiah, Jesus.

The words of Scripture are ultimately about Jesus. All their meaning is centered on Him and apart from Him we cannot understand their fullness. In Him we have the complete and ultimate revelation of God.

God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds; who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power … (Hebrews 1:1-3)

Jesus is not only the Word by which we understand the words of God, He is the Word by which we understand all other words. For the world itself comes forth from the Word of God. “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Hebrews 11:3). Heaven and earth were created by the Word, Jesus, and all things are sustained by Him. The reality of the physical realm as well as the spiritual find their meaning and purpose in Him and cannot be fully understood apart from Him.

The Life of the Resurrection

Eternal life is the life of the age to come. Yesterday we saw that the age to come is the age of the kingdom of God, and eternal life is the life of the kingdom. But there is also another way to speak about the age to come, something else that is an important part of it: The age to come is the age of the resurrection of the righteous. This was the Jewish expectation. It is spoken of in Daniel 12:2, of the time when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life [zoen aionion in the Septuagint], some to shame and everlasting contempt.”

When Lazarus died, Jesus said to his sister Martha, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha answered, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.” She was expressing the Jewish hope about the age to come. Taking up that point of expectation, Jesus responded with a startling revelation about Himself: “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:23-26).

Jesus Himself is the resurrection life of the age to come, and all who believe in Him shall live. But this life does not begin sometime in the future — it begins now. Jesus said,

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. (John 5:24-25)

“The hour is coming and now is,” He said, when those who hear His voice will live. This is resurrection life at work even in this present time. Even so, there is also another resurrection coming, the resurrection of the body. Jesus went on to say,

Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth — those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation. (John 5:28-29)

We can hear the echo of Daniel 12:2, that some will wake to everlasting life and others to everlasting contempt. However, that hour, the hour for the resurrection of the body from the grave, is coming but is not yet here. Even so, resurrection life, the life of the age to come, is already at work in us. Paul said, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

In his letter to the believers at Ephesus, Paul prayed that they might know “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 1:19-20). Paul went on to say that God has “made us alive together with Christ … and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” (Ephesians 2:5-6). This is not future promise but present reality. It is resurrection life now, the age to come breaking into this present age. In Ephesians 3, Paul wrote that God “is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.” The “power that works in us” in Ephesians 3:20 is the same power mentioned in Ephesians 1:19, the power that raised Jesus from the dead.

Indeed, this resurrection life that we have now (and the coming resurrection of the body) is the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Himself. He is called the “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18). Because He lives, we live, partaking of His life. Paul spoke of the “mystery” of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). This is the reality Paul himself confessed, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith I the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).

This is eternal life, the life of the resurrection. It is the life of the risen Jesus and belongs to all those who belong to Him. It begins now and lasts forever.

The Life of the Age to Come

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. (John 6:47)

Jesus says that those who believe in Him have everlasting, or eternal, life. Eternal life is not just about quantity of life, it’s about the quality of that life. That is, eternal life is not just life that lasts a really, really long time (eternity, in fact). It is the life of the age to come. That is it’s quality — it is not the life that comes from the present age (which is passing away) but the life of the coming one.

The Greek has it as zoen aionion. Zoe speaks of life. Aionion comes from aion, which speaks of an age (like eon). Eternal life is the life that is of the age. Which age? The age to come, which is the age of God’s kingdom, the Messianic age, the age of the resurrection.

In the Gospels, the life of the age to come is associated with the kingdom of God. For example, in Mark 9, Jesus speaks of entering life (verses 43 and 45). In the same section and under the same paradigm, He speaks of entering the kingdom of God (verse 47). In context, it is clear that both phrases refer to the same thing.

In Mark 10, we have the story of the rich young man who came to Jesus and asked, “What shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” (v. 17). Jesus dealt with the young man, telling him, “Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven” (v. 21). The young man went away in sorrow, because he had many possessions and was unwilling to give them up. Jesus then said to His disciples, “How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God” (v. 23). He said the same basic thing again in verse 24 and once more in verse 25. All three times, He spoke of it as the “kingdom of God. The rich young man asked about eternal life; Jesus answered his question, but in terms of the kingdom of God.

The disciples were stunned by this, and Peter started in, “See, we have left all and followed You” (v. 28). Jesus cut him short and said,

Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s, who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time — houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions — and in the age to come, eternal life.

Eternal life — just what the rich young man came seeking. It is the life of the age to come, the life of the kingdom of God.

In John 3, Jesus said to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (v. 3). And again, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (v. 5). Being born again speaks of a new life, indeed, of a new quality of life. It has to do with the kingdom of God, and with the Spirit of God. When we come down to verse 15, Jesus refers to Himself as the “Son of Man” (a Messianic reference) and of how He must be “lifted up” (a reference to the cross), “that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Then in verse 16, we have that famous passage: “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” (“Eternal life” and “everlasting life” are the same words in the Greek.) Again we see that eternal life is the life of the kingdom of God.

Though it is the life of the age to come, it is the present possession of all who belong to King Jesus the Messiah. Notice that in John 6:47, Jesus says that whoever believes in Him has (present tense) eternal life. It has already begun because the kingdom of God has come into the world. Jesus announced it at the beginning of His ministry: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand, Repent and believe the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Jesus is Himself the king — that is the significance of the His, Messiah (literally, “Anointed One”). It means that Jesus is the one God has anointed to be king over His kingdom.

The kingdom of God has come into the world and has been growing ever since. Jesus said, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12, NIV). The apostle John wrote, “The darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining” (1 John 2:8).

We live between the times — the time of God’s kingdom coming into the world (through Jesus the Messiah) and the time it will be revealed in all its fullness (when King Jesus comes again). We enter into that kingdom by the new birth, being “born again” by the Spirit of God, through faith in King Jesus. This is eternal life, the life of God’s kingdom age, the age to come which has already begun for us in King Jesus.

Activating Your Faith

You can tell a lot about a person’s faith by listening to their words, especially when they are under pressure. A lot of Christians, when difficult situations arise or they experience some sort of need or lack, will start speaking out of worry or fear instead of out of faith. For example, they will worry and complain about the high cost of gas or rising food prices. They speak out their fear instead of saying about it what the Word of God says: My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

Jesus said, “Do not worry, saying ...” (and we usually do worry by speaking it out) “but seek first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31-33). Instead of giving voice to our worries, fears and doubts, we should give voice to our faith — to what the Word has to say.

So, for example, when I see gas prices go up (thankfully, they are coming down some, at least for now), instead of letting worry have a word, I say, “My God shall supply all my need, all the gas I need and all the money I need to pay for it.” “God takes care of me in every way.” “I seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things are added unto me.” Sometimes my faith gets so stirred up I start hooting and hollering about how good God is to me. What happened? Instead of speaking in agreement with worry, I was speaking in agreement with the promises of God and His Word.

That’s what I call “activating” your faith — putting it into gear, speaking it out, and by it, putting pressure on whatever is out of alignment with the Word of God and His promises.

The Center of the Gospel

The center of the gospel is not my personal salvation. The center is Jesus. Mark begins his account of the gospel this way: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God” (Mark 1:1). Notice that it does not say, “The gospel of Jesus the Savior,” but “The gospel of Jesus Christ.”

“Christ” is not Jesus’ last name. It is the Greek form for the Hebrew “Messiah,” which means “Anointed.” So, the gospel relates back to the promises God made in the Old Testament about Messiah. Those promises pertained to God’s “Anointed,” that is, the one God anointed as King. So the center of the gospel is Jesus as God’s Anointed King.

A king implies a kingdom, which is also what God promised OT Israel — God would come and set things right in Israel and would rule over all the nations of the world. In Mark 1:14, Jesus came “preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God.” The content of that preaching is found in verse 15: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.”

That is the primary thrust of the gospel — the announcement that God’s kingdom has come into the world, and that Jesus is God’s Anointed King. Now, within that is what we might call the “plan of salvation” (and which is often mistaken for the whole of the gospel). The question of personal salvation is, “How do I participate in God’s new kingdom that has come into the world?”

To answer that, look at John 3. Of course, John 3:16 is one of the most famous verses about personal salvation. But let’s take a look at the context to see how personal salvation fits in. In John 3:3, Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” And again in John 3:5, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.”

Notice that Jesus speaks of salvation in terms of the kingdom of God — how one sees it, how one enters into it — how one becomes a part of it. The primary thrust of the gospel is about the coming of the kingdom of God, through the coming of Jesus, God’s anointed King. But within that is the matter of personal salvation, how we enter into God’s kingdom.

Now look at John 3:16 in view of verses 3 through 5 and following. The word for “everlasting” or “eternal” is the Greek word aionios, from the word aion, which means “age” or “eon.” It is a reference to the “age to come.” In the Jewish context of Jesus and Nicodemus, this would be understood as the Messianic age, the age of God’s kingdom, which would set everything right in the world and would never end. “Eternal life,” then, is the life of God’s kingdom age.

God’s kingdom age has already broken into the world and, although we still await the fullness of it, we can become part of it now. Through faith in Jesus, God’s anointed King, we can receive now the life of the age to come, the life of God’s eternal kingdom reign.

So, the good news of the gospel is not primarily the announcement that Jesus is Savior, and that we can all know that we are going to heaven when we die. That is a result of the gospel. Primarily, the gospel is the announcement of the good news that the kingdom of God has come into the world, that Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, is both God and King. The good news for us personally is that we participate in God’s kingdom and the life of the coming age (which has already broken into the world) through faith in God’s Anointed King, Jesus.

All Authority in Heaven and on Earth

Today is Ascension Sunday. We celebrate the day King Jesus the Messiah ascended to His throne at the right hand of the Father, where He now rules and reigns with all authority in heaven and on earth.

Matthew 28:18-20

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Mark 16:14-20

Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen.

Luke 24:46-53

Then He said to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And you are witnesses of these things. Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high.”

And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. Now it came to pass, while He blessed them, that He was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshiped Him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen.

Acts 1:4-11

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Now when He had spoken these things, while they watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight. And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel, who also said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will so come in like manner as you saw Him go into heaven.”

1 Corinthians 15:20-25

But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.

But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Therefore He says:

“When He ascended on high,
He led captivity captive,
And gave gifts to men.”

(Now this, “He ascended” — what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.)

Ephesians 4:7-16

And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head — Christ — from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

The Gospel of the King in John

The Gospel According to John does not use the noun “gospel” (Greek, euaggelion, evangel) as in Matthew and Mark, or the verb for “preaching the gospel” (Greek, euaggelizo, evangelize, “gospeling”), but it is about the gospel all the same.

John uses the word “kingdom” only five times. Two of these are found, significantly, in Jesus’ dialogue with Nicodemus, which we will look at in just a moment. The other three are found in just one verse, John 18:36, which we will also see in a minute. However, John does use the word “king” quite a bit, as do the other Gospel writers, and all in reference to Jesus. Also, like the other Gospel writers, he frequently uses the word “Christ,” which means “Messiah,” or more literally “Anointed One,” and which refers to the one God has anointed to be King (see Psalm 2). And, as in the other Gospels, He is called “Son of God,” the implications of which, also in view of Psalm 2, identify Him as King.

All three —“Christ,” “Son of God” and “King” — establish the identity of Jesus as King in the Gospel of John and, indeed, in all four Gospels. We find these three in the first chapter of John and they all attest to Jesus as King.

• From John the Evangelist’s exposition on Jesus as the Word: “For the law came through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ” (v. 18).
• From the testimony of John the Baptist concerning Jesus: “And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God” (v. 34).
• Andrew’s testimony to His brother Simon Peter after encountering Jesus: “We have found the Messiah” (v. 41).
• Nathanael’s exclamation to Jesus: “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel” (v. 49).

Let’s look at Jesus’ famous encounter with Nicodemus, who came to him late one night and said, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him” (John 3:2).

Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” A few verses later, He reiterated, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, 6).

The language of being “born again” has everything to do with seeing and entering the kingdom of God. The language about being born of water and the Spirit goes back to Ezekiel 36:24-28, which looked forward to the time of God’s Anointed King coming to establish His kingdom on earth. (For more on this meeting between Jesus and Nicodemus, see my four-part series: 1. Nicodemus and the Gospel of the Kingdom, 2. The Promised Kingdom, 3. Water, Spirit and the Kingdom of God, 4. Believing the King.)

Now, let’s look for a moment at Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which all four Gospel writers record. All four understand it in terms of the kingdom of God and its King. Matthew sees it as fulfillment of Zechariah’s messianic prophecy: “Behold, Your King is coming to you, lowly, and sitting on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Matthew 21:5, quoting Zechariah 9:9).

The people shouted loud Hosannas, a word which comes from the first part of Psalm 118:25 (Hebrew, Hoshia na!, “Save now!”). Psalm 118 is a messianic psalm about the stone rejected by the builders but who has become the chief cornerstone, and about Israel’s day of deliverance and victory over the nations.

The Gospel writers draw out different elements of praise that were brought along with those Hosannas. Mark shows the people saying, “Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes in the name of the Lord” (Mark 11:10). Luke records them saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the LORD” (Luke 19:38). And John recalls, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD! The King of Israel!” (John 12:13). John also quotes Zechariah in connection with it: “Behold, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt” (John 12:15).

All four Gospel writers also deal with Jesus’ dialogue with Pilate. John’s treatment, though sparse, is the most extensive:

Then Pilate entered the Praetorium again, called Jesus, and said to Him, “Are You the King of the Jews?”

Jesus answered him, “Are you speaking for yourself about this, or did others tell you this concerning Me?”

Pilate answered, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered You to me. What have You done?”

Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”

Pilate therefore said to Him, “Are You a king then?”

Jesus answered, “You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born, and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice.” (John 18:33-37)

Pilate then had Jesus scourged and, at the insistence of the chief priests and Jewish leaders, had Him crucified. Then we read:

Now Pilate wrote a title and put it on the cross. And the writing was:

JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS.

Then many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin.

Therefore the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but, ‘He said, “I am the King of the Jews.”’”

Pilate answered, “What I have written, I have written.” (John 19:19-22)

The crowd on Palm Sunday, the chief priests and Jewish leaders, and Pilate all recognized that Jesus claimed to be the King over Israel. The Jewish crowd received His claim and celebrated Him. The chief priests and the mob they instigated denied His claim. Pilate accepted His claim, though he clearly did not understand the deep significance of it.

Throughout the Gospel According to John we also see the identity of Jesus as Christ (Messiah) recognized and affirmed.

• John the Baptist identified Him as Christ (John 1:20-30; 3:28).
• Andrew told his brother, Simon Peter, “We have found the Messiah” (John 1:41).
• The Samaritan woman at the well testified, “Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” (John 4:29).
• Many of her fellow Samaritans agreed, “Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world” (John 4:42).
• Simon Peter and the disciples affirmed it: “Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (John 6:69).
• Many Jews agreed. “And many of the people believed in Him, and said, ‘When the Christ comes, will He do more signs than these which this Man has done?” (John 7:31). And again, “Others said, ‘This is the Christ’” (John 7:41).
• Jesus understood Himself to be the Messiah. In the Garden of Gethsemane, He prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
• John wrote his Gospel account so we might believe that Jesus is the Messiah: “But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing may have life in His name” (John 20:31).

The significance of Messiah, as found for example in Psalm2, is that He is the one anointed by God to be King. Likewise, the identity of Jesus as the Son of God, seen in some of the examples above as well as other places in John, also shows Him to be King, because the one God anointed to be King, in Psalm 2, is His own Son.

The Gospel of John, then, is the good news about God’s Anointed King.

Gospeling the Kingdom in Luke

While Mark speaks of the gospel itself (euaggelion, the evangel), Luke speaks of the act of preaching the gospel (euaggelizo, evangelizing).

The Gospel of Luke begins with a statement about fulfillment: “Inasmuch as many have taken in hand to set in order a narrative of those things which have been fulfilled among us …” (Luke 1:1). The gospel is the fulfillment of what God promised Israel in the Old Testament. Concerning the birth of John the Baptist, the angel Gabriel spoke to Zechariah and said,

He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,” and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. (Luke 1:17-18)

There is fulfillment here concerning what was prophesied at the very end of the book of Malachi, about Elijah coming to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to the fathers. There is also fulfillment here of passages such as Isaiah 40, about “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the LORD’” (v. 3). This fulfillment is about the gospel, as we can see in what the angel said next:

And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings [euaggelizo].” (Luke 1:19)

Likewise, the birth of Jesus is gospel fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel. The same angel that appeared to Zechariah also came to Mary and said,

Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end. (Luke 1:30-33)

As we saw in Matthew and Mark, so we find also in Luke the fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to David about an heir who would reign on his throne forever. There is also an echo of the promise of Messiah in Isaiah 9:6-7, “For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder … Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end.”

Mary, in her praise song to the Lord, recognizes the fulfillment that God was now bringing about. “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever” (Luke 1:54-55). The promise God made to Abraham, to David and to Israel all find fulfillment in the birth of Jesus. The is the good news of the gospel.

Zechariah also, in his praise song to the Lord after the birth of John, sees the fulfillment of God’s great promise to His people:

Blessed is the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David, as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets, who have been since the world began, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us, to perform the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham: To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him all the days of our life. (Luke 1:68-75)

Here again, the promises to Abraham, David and Israel find fulfillment in the gospel. So, when Jesus is born, the angels come to announce the good news to shepherds nearby:

The angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings [euaggelizo] of great joy which will be to all people. For there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. (Luke 2:10-11)

When Joseph and Mary bring Jesus to the temple to present Him before the Lord, old Simeon observes and sings, “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace, according to Your word; for my eyes have seen Your salvation which You have prepared before the face of all peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of Your people Israel” (Luke 2:29-32). Once again, we see that the good news of Jesus’ birth brings fulfillment to God’s promise to Israel. There is also indication here that this good news is not just for Israel but also for the Gentiles (the nations). This echoes Old Testament promises such as Isaiah 60:3, “The Gentiles shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.”

In Luke 3, John the Baptist begins his ministry as “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way of the Lord” (v. 4). Luke comments about John’s gospel ministry: “And with many other exhortations he preached [euaggelizo]to the people" (Luke 3:18).

When Jesus came to the synagogue at Nazareth, He preached the promise God made in Isaiah:

And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel [euaggelizo] to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” (Luke 4:17-19, quoting Isaiah 61:1-2)

Then Jesus sat down to teach and declared, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Though He was not well received at Nazareth, He went down to Capernaum, where He astonished many with the authority of His teaching. After healing many diseases and expelling many demons, He said, “I must preach [euaggelizo]the kingdom of God to the other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent.” Here we see that His gospel was explicitly about the kingdom of God, and is what He preached in the synagogues throughout Galilee (Luke 4:43-44). “Now it came to pass, afterward, that He went through every city and village, preaching and bringing the glad tidings [euaggelizo] of the kingdom of God. And the twelve were with Him” (Luke 8:1).

Not only were the twelve disciples with Jesus as He gospeled the kingdom but He also sent them out to do the same. “He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick” (Luke 9:2). The word for “preach” here is not euaggelizo but kerusso, to herald or proclaim. However, the content is the same, the kingdom of God. A few verses later, we see that the disciples were actually evangelizing: “So they departed and went through the towns, preaching the gospel [euaggelizo] and healing everywhere” (Luke 9:6). Jesus’ ministry of preaching and teaching and healing was always about the kingdom of God.

And the apostles, when they had returned, told Him all that they had done. Then He took them and went aside privately into a deserted place belonging to the city called Bethsaida. But when the multitudes knew it, they followed Him; and He received them and spoke to them about the kingdom of God, and healed those who had need of healing. (Luke 9:10-11)

To one who wished to become a disciple but first wanted to wait until he could rebury his father’s bones, Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60). The word for “preach” here is not euaggelizo, but a related one, diaggelizo, which means to announce the message thoroughly and everywhere.

When Jesus sent the seventy disciples out as laborers into His harvest, the message was the kingdom: “Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” (Luke 10:8-9).

The Pharisees supposedly valued the law and the prophets, but they did not recognize the fulfillment of what was promised in them, so they derided Jesus. But Jesus answered, “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached [euaggelizo], and everyone is pressing into it” (Luke 16:16).

The message of the kingdom of God is pervasive throughout the Gospel According to Luke. There are at least 43 explicit references to it from beginning to end. These include (in addition to the ones we have already seen):

• For I say to you, among those born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. (Luke 7:28)
• To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. (Luke 8:10)
• But if I cast out demons with the finger of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. (Luke 11:20)
• But seek the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you. (Luke 12:31)
• Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
• They will come from the east and the west, from the north and the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. (Luke 13:29)
• The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21)
• Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or parents or brothers or wife or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who shall not receive many times more in this present time, and in the age to come eternal life. (Luke 18:29-30)
• And I bestow upon you a kingdom, just as My Father bestowed one upon Me, that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. (Luke 22:29:30)

There are also references to the kingdom that are similar to what we have seen in Matthew and in Mark. The preaching of the gospel that we find in the Gospel According to Luke is about the fulfillment of God’s promises in the Old Testament, which are summed up in the kingdom of God.