What Does the Bible Say About the Kingdom of God?

By Michael D. Morrison
Copyright 2012 Grace Communion International
Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents 
The Present and Future Kingdom of God
Matthew 13: Parables of the Kingdom
More Parables of the Kingdom
Preaching in the Early Church
Your Invitation to the Kingdom of God
A Call to Live the Future Here and Now
Already in the Kingdom: A Study of Colossians 1
About the author
About the publisher
Grace Communion Seminary
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The Present and Future Kingdom of God
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” John the Baptist and Jesus proclaimed the nearness of God’s kingdom (Matthew 3:2; 4:17; Mark 1:15). The long-awaited rule of God was near. This message was called the gospel, the good news. Thousands of people were glad to hear this, and many responded to this message of John and Jesus.
But consider for a moment what the response would have been like if Jesus had preached, “The kingdom of God is 2,000 years away.” This would not have been news, nor perceived as all that good. The message would have been disappointing, and public response would also have been disappointing. Jesus may not have been popular, Jewish religious leaders might not have been jealous, and Jesus might not have been crucified. 
However, John and Jesus preached a kingdom that was near in time to their audiences. The message said something about what people should do now; it had immediate relevance and urgency. It aroused interest—and jealousy. The message challenged the status quo and implied that changes were needed in civil government, in religious teachings, and in personal behavior
First-century Jewish expectations
Many first-century Jews could identify with the phrase “kingdom of God.” They eagerly wanted God to send them a leader who would throw off Roman rule and make Judea an independent nation again—a nation of righteousness, glory and blessings, a nation everyone would be attracted to. There was a variety of speculations about how this would be done. The concept was attractive, although it was not very well defined.
In this cultural longing for national restoration, John and Jesus preached the nearness of God’s kingdom. Mid-way through Jesus’ earthly ministry, the message continued. He told his disciples to preach “The kingdom of heaven has come near” and to heal the sick (Matthew 10:7; cf. Luke 10:9, 11).
But the kingdom most people hoped for did not happen. The Jewish nation was not restored. Even worse, the temple was destroyed and the Jews were scattered. Even now, 2000 years later, the Jewish hopes are still unfulfilled. Was Jesus wrong in his prediction, or was he not predicting a national kingdom?
Well, we do not believe that Jesus was wrong. Rather, the popular hopes and speculations were wrong. Jesus’ kingdom was not like the popular expectation—as we might guess from the fact that many Jews wanted to kill him. His kingdom was “not of this world” (John 18:36). When he talked about the “kingdom of God,” Jesus used a phrase the people knew, but he was giving it a different meaning. He told Nicodemus that God’s kingdom was invisible to most people (John 3:3)—to understand it or experience it, a person must be renewed by God’s Spirit (verse 6). The kingdom of God was a spiritual kingdom, not a civil and physical organization. 
The word “kingdom” is a metaphor, since the sort of kingdom that Jesus was talking about is not an ordinary kingdom—certainly not like the kingdoms of the first-century world. In his parables, Jesus used a variety of images to explain what the kingdom is “like.” The reason he had to use parables was because his listeners did not have the same concept of “kingdom” as he did. “You are thinking that God’s plan to rescue the Jewish people is like a kingdom. OK, I will use that word, but I’m going to give you a different way to look at it…”
Present condition of the kingdom
In the Olivet prophecy, Jesus predicted certain signs and apocalyptic events. But some of Jesus’ teachings and parables explain that the kingdom does not come in a dramatic way. The seed grows quietly (Mark 4:26-29); the kingdom starts as small as a mustard seed (verses 30-32) and is hidden like yeast (Matthew 13:33). These parables suggest that the kingdom is a reality before it comes in a powerful and dramatic way. In addition to being a future reality, it has reality right now.
Let’s look at some verses that indicate the kingdom is already functioning. After casting out demons, Jesus said, “If it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons [and he did], then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Matthew 12:28; Luke 11:20). The kingdom is here, he said, and the proof is in the exorcisms. The power of God is invading the domain of evil, expelling the powers of evil.
This proof continues in the church today, because the church is doing even greater works than Jesus did (John 14:12). We can also say, “If we cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is working here.” The kingdom of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is continuing to demonstrate its power over the kingdom of Satan – and that power is shown not just in expelling evil spirits, but in many other activities that undo what the devil has done.
Satan still exerts some influence, but he has been defeated, and “the prince of this world now stands condemned” (John 16:11). He has been partially restrained — tied up (Mark 3:27). Jesus overcame Satan’s world (John 16:33), and with God’s help we are overcoming it, too (1 John 5:4). But not everyone does. In this age, the kingdom contains both good and bad, both wheat and tares (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43, 47-50; 24:45-51; 25:1-12, 14-30). Satan still has influence; we still look forward to a world and a time in which God’s will is done perfectly rather than partially.
 “The kingdom of heaven has been coming with violence,” Jesus said (Matthew 11:12, my translation)—and forceful people are laying hold of it (present tense). Even in the first century, people were laying hold of the kingdom, which implies that it existed back then. A parallel verse, Luke 16:16, also uses present-tense verbs: “everyone is forcing their way into it.” For now, we don’t need to decide who the forceful people are or why they use force—what is important here is that these verses talk about the kingdom as a present reality.
Luke 16:16 replaces the part of the sentence with “the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached.” This variation suggests that the kingdom’s coming, at least in Luke’s view, is roughly equivalent to its proclamation. The kingdom is—it already exists—and it is advancing by being preached. “The tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God,” Jesus said (Matthew 21:31), and they do it by believing the gospel (verse 32). 
“Enter” is a metaphor that implies movement, but the movement is one of allegiance rather than in geography. Actually, the kingdom makes the first “move”—it comes, and people are entering it not by changing their location, but by recognizing the validity of something that has already come. They could not enter it at all, unless it were already here. 
Jesus also implies (and this may be his main point) that God accepts them in his kingdom. Their behavior did not qualify them for the kingdom, but they were accepted by grace; they were given a right relationship with the King. The kingdom would not be good news for ordinary people unless ordinary people could be part of that kingdom. It requires grace, mercy, and forgiveness.
In Mark 10:15, Jesus indicates that the kingdom is something we must receive in some way, apparently in this life: “Anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.” 
Some Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom would come (Luke 17:20). You can’t see it, replied Jesus: “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that can be observed.” But he also said, “The kingdom of God is in your midst” (verse 21). Jesus was the King, and because he was teaching and performing miracles among them, the kingdom was among the Pharisees. However, he did not just say that the King was among them – he said that the kingdom was, too. It was available for them, just as much as it was for prostitutes, but the Pharisees were not entering.
Jesus Christ is in the church today, too, and just as the kingdom was present in the ministry of Jesus, it is present in the ministry of his church. The King is among us; his spiritual power is in us, even though the kingdom is not yet operating in its full power. 
We have already been brought into God’s kingdom (Colossians 1:13). We are already receiving a kingdom, and our proper response is reverence and awe (Hebrews 12:28). Christ “has made us [past tense] to be a kingdom” (Revelation 1:6). We are a holy nation (1 Peter 2:9)—already and currently a holy kingdom—but it does not yet appear what we shall be. God has rescued us from the dominion of sin and transferred us into his kingdom, under his ruling authority.
The kingdom of God is here, Jesus said. His audience did not need to wait for a conquering Messiah—God is already ruling, and we should be living his way now. We don’t yet possess a territory, but we do come under the reign of God.
The kingdom of God is here, Jesus said. But how is the kingdom present? The details are not yet clear, but the verses we have looked at say it is present. His audience did not need to wait for a conquering Messiah—God is already ruling, and we should be sharing in the divine life right now, living in his domain, in which his will is done. We don’t yet possess a territory, but we do come under the reign of God. The kingdom does not force itself upon us – we have to voluntarily come under its influence.
Understanding that the kingdom already exists can help us give greater attention to the way the world is right now. We do not forget that the completion of the kingdom is still future. If our only hope is in this age, we don’t have much hope (1 Corinthians 15:19). We do not harbor illusions about bringing the kingdom with human efforts. Nevertheless, even though we cannot transform this earth into a heavenly paradise, doing good is still good. We can still try to make the world a better place for at least a few people. This is part of what it means for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
The kingdom of God is yet future
When we suffer setbacks and persecutions, when we see that most people reject the gospel, we gain strength from the knowledge that the fullness of the kingdom is in a future age. And when we try to make the world a better place but encounter setbacks along the way, we do not give up, but take comfort in the fact that good will prevail in the end.
No matter how much we try to live in a way that reflects God and his kingdom – and we should try – we cannot transform the entire world into God’s kingdom. Perfection will come only through divine intervention. Dramatic miracles are needed to usher in the new age. Satan must be completely restrained, and we can’t do that.
Numerous verses tell us that the kingdom of God will be a glorious future reality. We know that Christ is a King even now, but we yearn for the day when he will exercise his power in a great and dramatic way to stop human suffering. The book of Daniel predicts a kingdom of God that will rule the earth (Daniel 2:44, 7:13-14, 22); the New Testament Apocalypse describes its arrival (Revelation 11:15, 19:11-16).
We pray for the kingdom to come (Luke 11:2) – but even so, we want God’s will to be done now, as well as in the future. The poor in spirit and people who are persecuted await a future “reward in heaven” (Matthew 5:3, 10, 12). People “enter the kingdom” not just now, but also on a future “day” of judgment (Matthew 7:21-23; Luke 13:22-30). Jesus gave one of his parables because some people thought the kingdom would become powerful right away (Luke 19:11). 
In the Olivet prophecy, Jesus described dramatic events that would come before his return in power. Shortly before his crucifixion, Jesus looked forward to a kingdom in the future: “I will not drink from this fruit of the vine from now on until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom” (Matthew 26:29).
Paul speaks several times of “inheriting the kingdom of God” as a future experience (1 Corinthians 6:9, 10; 15:50; Galatians 5:21; cf. Ephesians 5:5), and otherwise indicates by his language that he thinks of it as realized only at the end of the age (1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:5; Colossians 4:11; cf. 2 Timothy 4:1, 18). When Paul wants to focus on the present manifestation of the kingdom, he tends either to introduce the term “justice” or “righteousness” along with “kingdom” (Romans 14:17) or in place of it (Romans 1:17; for the close association of the kingdom and the justice of God, see Matthew 6:33), or (alternatively) to connect the kingdom with Jesus Christ rather than God the Father (Colossians 1:13). (J. Ramsey Michaels, “The Kingdom of God and the Historical Jesus,” chapter 8 of The Kingdom of God in 20th-Century Interpretation, edited by Wendell Willis [Hendrickson, 1987], page 112)

Some “kingdom” scriptures could apply either to the present kingdom or to the future fulfillment. For example, lawbreakers will be called least in the kingdom (Matthew 5:19-20). That could be true no matter whether the kingdom is now, or in the future. Similarly, we leave families for the sake of the kingdom (Luke 18:29). We enter the kingdom through tribulations (Acts 14:22). These verses could refer to either a present or a future kingdom, but as we have already seen, at least some verses are clearly one, and some are clearly the other, and both must be held together. It is the same kingdom, both now and in eternity. The kingdom is a paradox, a surprise, a mystery that may be difficult to understand.
After Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples asked him, “Are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” (Acts 1:6). How was Jesus to answer such a question? What the disciples meant by kingdom was not what Jesus had been teaching. The disciples were still thinking in terms of a nationalistic kingdom rather than a slowly growing family of all ethnic groups. It would take them many years to realize that Gentiles were welcome in the new kingdom. Christ’s kingdom was still not of this world, but it was to be active in this age. So Christ did not say yes or no—he simply told them there was work to do and power to do it (verses 7-8).
The kingdom of God in the past
Matthew 25:34 tells us that the kingdom has been in preparation since the foundation of the world. It has been in existence all along, albeit in different forms. God was a King to Adam and Eve; he gave them dominion or authority to rule; they were his vice-regents in the Garden of Eden. Although the word “kingdom” is not used, the first humans were essentially in a kingdom of God, under his rule and ownership.
When God promised Abraham that his descendants would become great nations and that kings would come from him (Genesis 17:5-6), he was, in effect, promising a kingdom of God. But it started small, like yeast hidden in a batch of dough, and it took hundreds of years to be seen for what it was.
When God brought the Israelites out of Egypt and made a covenant with them, they became a kingdom of priests (Exodus 19:6), a kingdom that belonged to God and could rightly be called a kingdom of God. The covenant he made with them was similar to treaties that ancient empires made with smaller nations. God had saved Israel from slavery, and the Israelites responded—they agreed to be his people, as a nation in his empire. God was their king (1 Samuel 12:12; 8:7). David and Solomon sat on the throne of God, ruling on his behalf (1 Chronicles 29:23). Israel was a kingdom of God.
But the people wouldn’t obey their King. God sent them away, but he promised to restore the nation with a new heart (Jeremiah 31:31-33), a prophecy that is being fulfilled in the church today. We who are led by the Holy Spirit are the royal priesthood and holy nation that ancient Israel could not be (1 Peter 2:9, Exodus 19:6). 
God has always been a King, and there has always been a kingdom, and there always will be a kingdom. But this one kingdom appears in different ways at different times – it looks one way with Adam and Eve, another way with Abraham. It is transformed again with the nation of Israel, and transformed again with Jesus and the church. We are now in the kingdom, but there are weeds growing in among the grain. At the end of the age, the Messiah will return in power and glory, the weeds will be removed, and the kingdom of God will again be transformed in appearance. The final form of the kingdom, in which everyone is perfect and spiritual, will be dramatically different from the millennial one (no matter how you understand the millennium).
Since the kingdom has historical continuity, it is proper to speak of it in past, present and future tenses. In its historical development, it has had and will continue to have major milestones as new phases are established. The kingdom was established at Mt. Sinai; and again in Jesus’ ministry; it will be established again at his return and the day of judgment. In each phase, God’s people rejoice in what they have and look forward to more yet to come. One phase builds upon the other. As we now experience some limited aspects of the kingdom, we gain confidence that the future kingdom will also be a reality. The Holy Spirit is our guarantee of greater blessings (2 Corinthians 5:5, Ephesians 1:14).
What the kingdom looked like in the past is not what it looked like in Jesus’ day, nor what it will look like in the future. In some respects the phrase “kingdom of God” has different meanings at different times in history. But the fact that the same phrase may be used for the first-century manifestation and the future manifestation, causes us to look for a common denominator, something that the kingdom in all ages has in common, despite its dramatically different appearance at different times in history. A more abstract term such as “rule” can be helpful, and indeed, that seems to be what the Greek word basileia focuses on. 
Jesus told a parable about a man who went to a foreign country to receive a kingdom (Luke 19:12, a literal translation). He went not to receive the territory and bring it back with him. Rather, he went to receive the authority to rule. The NIV gives the meaning: he went “to have himself appointed king.” He then returned to the territory and had to exert that authority. 
The Jews were well acquainted with a historical example: Herod had gone to Rome, seeking to be appointed king. He was so appointed, but when he returned to Judea he had to raise an army and conquer the territory. What he was given in Rome was not the territory, but the permission to be its king. The Greek word basileia is focused on authority, not on territory.
The kingdom and the gospel
When we hear the word kingdom, we are reminded of the kingdoms of this world, perhaps the kingdoms of medieval Europe. In this world, kingdom is associated with authority and power, but not harmony and love. Kingdom can describe the authority God has in his family, but it does not describe all the blessings God has in store for us. It is a metaphor, and it cannot convey all that God’s realm is. That’s why other metaphors are used, too, such as the family term children, which emphasizes God’s love and authority.
Each term is accurate, but incomplete. If any one term could describe salvation perfectly, I suppose that the Bible would use that term consistently. But all are metaphors, each describing some aspect of salvation—but none of the terms describes the complete picture. When God commissioned the church to preach the gospel, he did not restrict us to using only the phrase “kingdom of God.” The apostles translated Jesus’ sayings from Aramaic to Greek, and they translated them into other metaphors, choosing concepts that were more meaningful to a non-Jewish audience. Matthew, Mark and Luke use “the kingdom” often. John and the epistles also describe our future, but they generally prefer other metaphors to do it. 
Salvation is probably the most general term. Paul said we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8), are being saved (2 Corinthians 2:15) and shall be saved (Romans 5:9). The salvation that we already have, just like the kingdom we are in now, is a foretaste of greater things to come – but it is salvation and kingdom nonetheless. God has given us salvation, and he expects us to respond to him with faith. John wrote of salvation and eternal life as a present reality and possession (1 John 5:11-12) and also a future blessing. We have now a small foretaste of what we will have in the future.
Metaphors such as salvation and family of God—just as much as kingdom—are legitimate although partial descriptions of God’s plan for us. Christ’s gospel can be called the gospel of the kingdom, gospel of salvation, gospel of grace, gospel of God, gospel of eternal life, etc. The gospel is an announcement that we are destined to be in loving relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit forever, and it includes information about this has been made possible—through Jesus Christ our Savior.
When Jesus talked about the kingdom, he didn’t emphasize its physical blessings or clarify its chronology. He focused instead on how people get in that kingdom, and how they live. We enter the kingdom when we respond to God with faith and allegiance, when we come under his authority; we then seek to live in way that is reflective of that kingdom.
In Mark 10, a man wanted to inherit eternal life, and Jesus said he should keep the commandments (verses 17-19). This was apparently just a teaser of an answer, because Jesus soon added another command: He told him to give up all his possessions for the heavenly treasure (verse 21). Jesus commented to the disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” (verse 23). The disciples asked, “Who then can be saved?” (verse 26). 
In this passage, and in its parallel (Luke 18:18-30), we see several phrases used to indicate the same thing: receive the kingdom, inherit eternal life, have treasure in heaven, enter the kingdom, be saved. When Jesus said, “follow me” (v. 21), he was using another phrase to indicate the same thing: We enter the kingdom by orienting our life to Jesus – and it is not possible for us to do it – but it is possible with God. He makes the impossible possible.
In Luke 12:31-34, Jesus also indicates that several concepts are similar: seeking the kingdom, being given the kingdom, having a heavenly treasure, giving up trust in physical possessions. We seek God’s kingdom by responding to what Jesus taught, and that is also the way that we enter the kingdom. (This is a metaphor of allegiance, not physical movement to a new territory.) God’s kingdom is the realm in which God’s will is done. In Luke 21:28, 30, the kingdom is parallel to redemption.
In Acts 20:21, 24-25, 32, we learn that Paul preached the gospel of the kingdom, and he preached the gospel of God’s grace, repentance and faith. The kingdom is closely connected with eternal life—the kingdom would not be worth preaching if we couldn’t be part of it, and it wouldn’t make sense to risk our lives for it in this age unless we were promised life in an eternal age. We can enter the kingdom only through faith, repentance and grace, so those are part of any message about God’s kingdom. Salvation is a present-tense reality as well as a promise of future blessings. Acts 28:23, 29, 31 tells us that Paul preached not only the kingdom but also about Jesus and salvation. These are different ways to describe the same Christian message. One focuses on the result; one on the means by which we get that result.
In Corinth, Paul preached nothing but Christ and his crucifixion (1 Corinthians 2:2). In Acts 28:23, 29, 31, Luke tells us that Paul in Rome preached both the kingdom and about Jesus and salvation. These are different aspects of the same Christian message.
The kingdom is relevant not merely because it is our future reward, but also because it affects how we live and think in this age. We prepare for the future kingdom by living in it now, following our King. We are bringing the future into the present. As we live in allegiance to Jesus, we recognize God’s rule as a present reality in our own experience, and we continue to hope in faith for a future time when the kingdom will be filled to the full, when the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord.
Perspective from the future
Suppose for a moment that you could live forever – what sort of world would you want to live in? Would it be a world in which everyone is trying to lord it over others, in which leaders enrich themselves at others’ expense, in which everyone is looking out for themselves even if it means stealing from other people? A world in which you always have to watch your back, a world in which you can never trust anybody else, but always had to use threat or force to get what you want? If that sort of world lasted forever, you could never relax or let your guard down – there would always be someone eager to use an opportunity to take something you had. That’s not much like heaven, if you ask me.
Or would you rather live in a world in which everyone was trying to be helpful, a world in which people who have power always use it to help others? That would be far better, I think, and that is the sort of kingdom that Jesus is offering us, because it is the sort of king that he is. The Lord’s Prayer says that we want God’s will to be done – we want that because it’s the better way to live – and it’s better now, not just later.
If we want a life of perpetual competition, of struggle against one another, then we don’t have to do anything; that’s the world we already have. But if we want a world of cooperation, of kindness and love, if we really want that, then that is the way we ought to want to live right now. In one sense, we vote for our kingdom by the way we live. We choose each day what kind of world we want to live in. We can choose to live by the methods of this world, or by the methods of Jesus.
The way of Jesus is not easy, but then neither is competition and dog-eat-dog. The way of Jesus might be difficult, and it might sometimes involve pain and suffering for us, just as it did for Jesus. It might even involve death – but all of us are going to die anyway, aren’t we? The way of Jesus comes with the good news that we will live again – we will have eternal life in the age of cooperation, kindness, and love, and there will be no more pain and no more sorrow. 
The good news is that such a world will come, and right behavior and right ways of thinking will prevail, and Jesus has already qualified us to be in that kingdom of kindness. But the best part of eternity is not the low crime rate—it is the presence of God. We will live with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and with each other, in peace and love and joy.
We are not fully there yet, but that’s what Jesus has given us, and he is saying that if that’s the kind of life we want forever and ever, then that’s the way we ought to be living right now. We are already in that kingdom, and we should live like it. If we really want it, we will be willing to live it. We have something wonderful to look forward to, and we have something wonderful to live for even now.
This is not easy. In fact, it’s not possible. We cannot do it, because we are too weak to do it. Even with God’s help, we keep falling short. The good news is that Jesus has done this for us, and he is willing to give it to us as a gift. We do not deserve to live in the kingdom of kindness, but Christ gives it to us as a gift. We are saved by God’s mercy, not by anything we can do. No matter how many good things we do, we can’t buy our way into an eternal life of joy. 
But the good news is that Jesus has paid the price – a big enough price for all of us put together. He has already done it, and he is giving it to us. If we know that we will live forever in peace and joy and love, we can give our life for what Jesus wants, knowing that he will give us far more in return. If we really want life in a world of kindness and joy, if we really want it, then we will want to live that way even now, and Jesus will do it in us, because he has already done it, and he lives in us and makes new people out of us, if we let him.
Does this involve works – behaviors that we do? Yes. Do those works save us? No. They always fall short of what we really want. The Bible makes it clear that we always need grace. But the Bible has a lot to say about behavior, too, and if we are to make sense of this dual emphasis, we need to understand how the two fit together. 
If the gospel offers nothing more than forgiveness of sins, for example, then all its behavioral exhortations are verbal clutter that we could eliminate (and some people are happy to do that). But the problem with sin is not just that God has declared transgressors to be guilty and disqualified. God is not in the business of creating arbitrary rules that disqualify us, just so he can send Jesus to qualify us.
The problem with sin (indeed, the reason that God tells us to avoid it in the first place) is that it messes up our relationships and messes up our happiness. Paul describes sin as a power over us, a power we need to be freed from. Just removing the eternal penalty is only one aspect of the salvation we need – we also need to be delivered from the grip of sin itself. Taking the end-time punishment away is only one part of Christ’s saving work. 
To be saved from the pain-producing force of sin itself, we need something internal, affecting the nature of who we are as human beings, and changing the choices we make in life. We need to stop kicking the thorns, or banging our head against the wall, shooting ourselves in the foot, or whatever other metaphor you want to use for self-inflicted pain. A judicial declaration about the future judgment does not change our tendency to sin, and does not change the fact that sin causes pain in our lives and it is a power we need to be rescued from. 
As long as we struggle with sin, as long as we do things that we wish we hadn’t done, our salvation is not complete. Our future may be guaranteed, but our salvation is not yet complete. We look forward to a future transformation that will liberate us from the sin nature that resides within us. Another way of saying it is that we are on the right flight, but we are not yet at our final destination.
Behavior and grace are tied together because (quite apart from any eternal penalty) our behavior is something we need to be saved from. God wants us to participate in the triune life, a life that is freed from even the temptation to lie, cheat, steal, and commit adultery. It would make no sense for him to say, “I invite you into a community in which love and loyalty prevail – but that’s just the future. In this age, it really doesn’t matter whether you participate in that way of life or not.” 
If eternal life is worth having, it’s worth living that way right now. The future kingdom – the life of the triune God – is brought into the present as we choose to live the way of the future – or rather, let Christ live it in us. This is letting his kingdom be manifest in our lives. When Jesus is telling us to do something (preach the gospel, for example), he is saying that this reflects the mindset and way of life that is characteristic of the life to which he is inviting us, the life for which he has qualified us, so it is something that we ought to want to do. And when he tells us to avoid something, it is because that way of thinking or acting will not be in the eternal kingdom. It is something we need to be rescued from. 
Our thoughts and emotions are an intrinsic part of the reward that Christ gives us. God says, “I want you to enjoy the results of love rather than selfishness.” But we do not enjoy the results of love if we remain selfish. Christ does not magically give us the results of having good relationships with other people unless we actually have good relationships. He does not give us the rewards of loving other people unless we actually love others. If there is no connection between rule and result, then the result is arbitrary – but God’s definition of sin is not arbitrary. He is saying that there is an intrinsic and unavoidable relationship between what we do, and how happy we are. 
The reward is an intrinsic and inseparable part of behavioral changes that come with coming under the rule of the triune God. We are invited into a life of divine love, not a life of perpetually chasing after selfish pleasures. The many commands we see in the New Testament show us that certain behaviors are contrary to the kingdom of God, contrary to the lifestyle that God wants us to participate in, contrary to the lifestyle of the kingdom past and kingdom future. 
We fail to live up to all that God calls us to be. But that does not mean that it’s pointless to try. We were made to share in the life of the triune God, and the better we are in tune with the way we’ve been made, the happier we will be.
In summary, sin has consequences in this age and in the next. Jesus has taken care of the ultimate penalty, but he does not change the fact that sin causes pain in our lives. Adultery, theft, and deceit have unpleasant results in this age. He does not magically change the results – he helps us avoid the negative consequences by working in us to change 1) the behavior and 2) the desires that lead to bad behavior and bad results. He helps us stop beating our head against the wall. This transformation doesn’t happen instantly, so we always need to trust in the grace he has promised. We are assured that he helps us in the present age as well as the future judgment.
Good behavior, and right ways of thinking, have consequences in this age and in the next. Eternal life with the triune God will be good primarily because of the relationships of love that will be in eternity – honesty and kindness will prevail. That sort of behavior has good results – not just in the future, but in the present age as well. So God invites us into this way of life. The kingdom is not just a future reality – people are even now entering God’s kingdom by responding to what he offers. He offers not an artificial world in which our enjoyment has no connection with the way we treat other people, but a world or kingdom in which joy is the natural result of love, of treating others the way we wish to be treated.
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Matthew 13: Parables of the Kingdom
We need to make sure that our description of the kingdom is compatible with the description Jesus gave. Jesus often preached about the kingdom of God—but what did he say about it? Did he describe peace and prosperity, health and wealth, law and order? Did he get into details of governmental organization?
No, we do not need to know those things. The most important thing we need to know about the kingdom is how we get there in the first place—and when Jesus described the kingdom, that is what he talked about.
Let’s begin with Matthew 13, the largest collection of kingdom parables. Several times Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like…” and then he would tell a story. We know many of these parables, but a few details may surprise us.
Parable of the sower
A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (Matthew 13:3-9)

The story is easy to understand. We can picture a man scattering wheat seeds, and we understand about birds, thorns and sunshine. But Jesus had a spiritual purpose in this story, and the disciples found it puzzling. So they asked Jesus, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?” (v. 10).
Jesus told them that it was not yet time for people to understand the “secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (v. 11). He is saying that this parable is actually about the kingdom of God—something we see again in verse 19. Most of the people in the crowd were not spiritually responsive (vs. 13-15), and so Jesus was not giving them more than they could handle. But Jesus taught his disciples the spiritual significance of the story—and they have published it for us.
When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. (v. 19)

When we preach the gospel, Jesus says, some people do not understand it. That’s just the way it is in this world. Don’t get upset if people think you are talking nonsense.
The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. (vs. 20-21)

Some people like the gospel as a novelty. But then they get bored with it, and when it doesn’t solve their problems, they quit. So when we share the gospel, some of the people who respond will eventually fall away. Don’t be surprised; that’s just the way some people are.
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. (v. 22)

People do not have to be rich to be deceived by riches. All sorts of people can be distracted by the worries of this world, and some drop out for that reason. They are more worried about this world than they are about eternity.
But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. (v. 23)

Jesus wants us to be this kind of person. Seeds don’t have a choice as to what kind of soil they fall on, but we have a choice as to what kind of soil we will be for the seed. We can choose to respond to the gospel. When trials come, we can choose to stick with the gospel, or to fall away. When life gets boring or worrisome, we can choose whether to bear fruit for the kingdom. That’s the kind of message Jesus gives us.
Parable of the weeds
Jesus told them another parable: 
The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. 25 But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. 26 When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.
27 The owner’s servants came to him and said, “Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?”
28 “An enemy did this,” he replied.
The servants asked him, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
29 “No,” he answered, “because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.” (Matthew 13:24-30)

Jesus explains the parable for us in verses 37-43. The good seeds are the disciples, spread by Jesus throughout the world. The weeds are bad people, spread by the devil. The bad people are mixed in with the good, and this is what the kingdom of God is like. God allows this; it is part of his plan. Jesus is describing a world in which Satan is active—the age we live in today. The kingdom of God starts small, like seeds, and it is growing now, and God is waiting to see which plants will bear fruit. Don’t be too hasty, he tells his servants. Wait and see. There will be a harvest.
In farming, weeds can never produce grain. But when it comes to the gospel, fruitless folks can be changed. What looks like a weed one day may begin bearing fruit another day. It depends on each person’s choice, and the kingdom of God gives people time to choose. But this will not go on forever. There will come a judgment, and the weeds will be removed from the kingdom (v. 41). God lets good and bad grow together, but he doesn’t want the bad to stay bad. He wants them to change, and he will keep only the good. (How we become “good” is covered in other places.)
This parable, and the previous one, describes an age in which we have spiritual enemies. It does not describe the world after Jesus returns. Rather, it’s a time when enemies snatch away the message that was sown in people’s hearts, and cause weeds to grow among God’s people. The kingdom of God, as described in these parables, is not a utopia in which everything is perfect. It is a time of struggle, trials, worries and deceit—but it is also a time of growth that leads toward God’s harvest. 
In these parables, the harvest is at “the end of the age.” The harvest is the time when God’s people will be resurrected to be with the Lord forever. These descriptions of the kingdom end with the return of Christ, rather than beginning with it. These parables describe a kingdom that exists in this age, a kingdom that will also include a future judgment. 
When Jesus preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, this is the way he described it. He was not preaching about a golden age of peace and prosperity, but a long period of growth in which his disciples are to produce fruit for the kingdom.
Parables of growth
The next story is about growth:
He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.” (vs. 31-32)

Here Jesus described the kingdom not just as a seed, but as the smallest seed. Jesus is not describing a kingdom that arrives in a blaze of glory—he is describing a kingdom that begins very small. This is not what the Jews expected, but this is the kingdom that Jesus said was near. The kingdom is a story about gradual growth. 
In the next parable, perhaps the shortest parable of all, Jesus compares the kingdom to a small amount of yeast. 
Again he asked, “What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? 21 It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about sixty pounds of flour until it worked all through the dough. (Matthew 13:33)

When yeast is first mixed into bread dough, it is not very noticeable, but a small amount eventually produces a large result. The kingdom begins small and inconspicuous, but it grows large. In the parable of the wheat, it also produces a crop for harvest. 
The small beginning of the kingdom would have surprised Jesus’ listeners. They were hoping that a Messiah would lead the Jewish people to a great victory over the Romans. They were hoping to become an independent nation, with the power of David’s kingdom and the wealth of Solomon’s. But Jesus was announcing that the kingdom must begin in a very small way. 
These parables do not describe a future golden age. They do not fit well with a kingdom that begins in a blaze of glory at Jesus’ return. Rather, these parables describe the kingdom of God that exists for many years before the return of Christ. These parables describe a long, slow growth process for the kingdom. 
The kingdom of God is not just a seed, and it is not just a fully grown plant. It is the entire story—something small that grows into something large.
Hidden treasures
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. 
45 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. 46 When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it. (vs. 44-46)

Again, the story begins with the kingdom small and hidden—but it does not remain hidden. The traditional interpretation of these parables is that when we hear the message of the kingdom, we should be so full of joy that we are willing to give up everything else. That is true. 
But we can never “buy” the kingdom or earn our salvation. Rather, in these parables (like other parables in this chapter), it may be that Jesus is the main character. He is the one who sees hidden treasure in his people (the field), and gives everything he has to purchase the prize. The value may not be evident right now, but it is there.
Good fish, bad fish
Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. 48 When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. 49 This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous 50 and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (vs. 47-50)

The kingdom of God captures both good and bad people. The message is given to both. They live together and are given a chance to change and grow. Eventually the time comes when judgment is made, and God keeps the good. He loves the bad, he seeks the bad, he wants the bad, but he does not want them to stay bad. But some people choose to stay bad. God gives each person time, but eventually there is a judgment. That is what the kingdom of God is like.
Again, these parables end with the day of judgment. When Jesus described the kingdom, he did not describe the world after his return. Rather, he described the world in this age, the age in which we hear the gospel, choose to respond, and choose to be faithful.
When we hear the gospel, we should respond. Though trials come our way, we need to keep our eyes on the goal. Though this life has its worries, we should not let them distract us. Through faith, we enter the kingdom of God, and through faithfulness, we stay in the kingdom of God, and through faith, we bear fruit for the kingdom.
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More Parables of the Kingdom
Matthew 13 is the largest collection of parables that are specifically said to be about the kingdom of God. But Matthew has five additional parables describing the kingdom of God, and Mark has another. A brief analysis of these parables will show that Jesus did not describe the kingdom as an ideal age after his return. Rather, he described the kingdom as an age leading up to the final judgment.
The growing seed
This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come. (Mark 4:26-29)

This parable, like the parable of the mustard seed and the parable of yeast in the dough, is a story of growth. The kingdom of God is not just a seed, not just a harvest—it involves the whole story of growth—a growth that occurs whether or not humans notice it or understand the way it works. The gospel produces its fruit in people’s lives, and then comes the harvest—the judgment.
The unmerciful servant
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 At this the servant fell on his knees before him. “Be patient with me,” he begged, “and I will pay back everything.” 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. “Pay back what you owe me!” he demanded.
29 His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, “Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.”
30 But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart. (Matthew 18:23-35)

This entire story is what the kingdom is like, Jesus said. It’s about judgment, and about the King forgiving our debts, and about our need to forgive one another. And it is also about severe consequences for those who don’t. 
The kingdom of God involves a time in which people are forgiven, and are likewise expected to be forgiving toward one another. The amount we owe God, so to speak, is thousands of times greater than whatever anyone might owe to us. Since he has been merciful toward us, we are to be merciful to others.
Some of the detail is exaggeration. God does not torture people in an effort to make them repay what they owe. No amount of suffering could possibly pay off our transgressions against God. This detail is a rhetorical device, used to emphasize the importance of responding to God’s grace; it is not a commentary on the purpose of hell.
We do not forgive others as well as God forgives us. We always fall short in that—but this is not the unforgiveable sin. God forgives us of this failure, too. However, whenever we fail to forgive others, it shows that we have failed to appreciate how much God has forgiven us, and that we are still striving, at least in part, to earn something that has already been given to us. We live in a self-imposed torture of feeling that God is angry at us, when he really is not. We will not experience the forgiveness of God unless we are forgiving toward others. 
The main point for us right now is that this parable describes life in this age, not our situation after Christ’s return. 
The vineyard workers
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, “You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.” 5 So they went.
He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, “Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?”
7 “Because no one has hired us,” they answered.
He said to them, “You also go and work in my vineyard.”
8 When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.”
9 The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 “These who were hired last worked only one hour,” they said, “and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.”
13 But he answered one of them, “I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?”
16 So the last will be first, and the first will be last. (Matthew 20:1-16)

The kingdom of heaven is an age in which we work before we are rewarded. Some work much, and others work only a little, but all are paid. This does not mean that we earn our salvation, of course; work simply provides the setting of the parable. The point is that God is generous, and he is so generous that it troubles some people.
If Jesus were describing the world after his return, the parable would not be very relevant to his audience, nor to us. The work he describes as part of the kingdom is the work we are doing now, in this age, and the grace that some people complain about is grace that can be seen in this age. Some people work long and hard to do God’s will, and others work less, but in one respect the Master treats them all the same: He forgives them, whether their debt is large or small.
This parable presents us with two questions: 1) Do we think that God is too liberal? 2) Are we willing to do our best, even if it’s difficult, even if others get the same reward for doing less?
The wedding clothes
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. 3 He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.
4 Then he sent some more servants and said, “Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.”
5 But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. 6 The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. 7 The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his servants, “The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. 9 So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.” 10 So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.
11 But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. 12 He asked, “How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend ?” The man was speechless.
13 Then the king told the attendants, “Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 
14 For many are invited, but few are chosen. (Matthew 22:2-14)

Here, Jesus compared the kingdom to a wedding feast—not the banquet itself, but to the invitations. Jesus is not talking about what it will be like after we get there, but rather how we get there in the first place. The original invitees are the unbelieving Jews, but they ignored the message and persecuted the messengers. 
God then invites everyone else, both good and bad, and that includes us. But God does not want bad people to stay bad. Eventually a day of judgment will come, when we will need to be clothed in the righteousness of Christ. The main point of the parable—what people need to know about the kingdom of God—is that the invitations are going out now, and we need to respond to them.
The wise and foolish virgins
At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2 Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3 The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4 The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5 The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep. 
6 At midnight the cry rang out: “Here’s the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!”
7 Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8 The foolish ones said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.”
9 “No,” they replied, “there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.”
10 But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11 Later the others also came. “Lord, Lord,” they said, “open the door for us!”
12 But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.”
13 Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour. (Matthew 25:1-13)

Jesus is talking about the day that the master will return (Matthew 24:50), and he is saying that the kingdom will then be like a wedding for which some people will be unprepared. Not everyone who wants to attend will be permitted to.
Jesus’ point is not to make a prediction, but to encourage his disciples to be wise, to be prepared, to be always ready. The parable about the future is really an exhortation for today. Jesus does not say here what the oil represents, or how we “buy” more, or how we can be prepared. The point is simply that we need to be prepared.
The bags of gold
The traditional name of this next story is the parable of talents, from the Greek word talanton. Anciently, this was a large amount of money; the NIV has attempted to give the approximate value by translating it as “bags of gold.” The precise dollar figure is not important; it represents everything that God has given to us. Some people get more than others, but God wants us to use whatever amount we have.
Again, it [the kingdom of God, v. 1] will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his wealth to them. 15 To one he gave five bags of gold, to another two bags, and to another one bag, each according to his ability. Then he went on his journey. 16 The man who had received five bags of gold went at once and put his money to work and gained five bags more. 17 So also, the one with two bags of gold gained two more. 18 But the man who had received one bag went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money.
19 After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 20 The man who had received five bags of gold brought the other five. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with five bags of gold. See, I have gained five more.”
21 His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
22 The man with two bags of gold also came. “Master,” he said, “you entrusted me with two bags of gold; see, I have gained two more.”
23 His master replied, “Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!”
24 Then the man who had received one bag of gold came. “Master,” he said, “I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your gold in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.”
26 His master replied, “You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest.
28 “So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. 29 For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matthew 25:14-30)

Just as the good seeds produce grain for the harvest, here the good servants work for their master. There is a long time period, and the people are expected to do something, and to have some results. Those who fail to respond to the King will not be rewarded, and will miss out on the blessings of the kingdom.
The King determines how much to reward each person. He is the one who determines when to call each worker, and he determines when he will return for judgment. When Christ returns, the kingdom of God will be like the return of a wealthy landowner. Faithful servants will be rewarded; fearful and lazy servants will be excluded from the blessings. 
The focus is more on the present than it is on the future. Jesus told the parable because it is relevant to the way we live now. Some will work hard and bear much fruit; others will bear less fruit, but both will be rewarded generously, and both will share in the master’s happiness.
Jesus wants the gospel to have results in our lives. He does not want us to think that he is hard, or that he makes unreasonable demands. We do not need to be afraid, or to use that as an excuse for doing nothing. Rather, we are to grow—at least a little, hopefully more. Jesus wants us to be about our Father’s business. He doesn’t always spell out exactly what we are to do, but he wants us to at least make an effort, to try while we can. 
Conclusion
We have now looked at all the parables that Jesus specifically said described the kingdom. Let’s try to summarize what he said.
First, the kingdom of God begins in a small way. It is not conspicuous. Many people will not notice it. Others will hear about it and want to be part of it, but will fall away for one reason or another. The kingdom has too much work, too many trials. It is not the utopia that some people want it to be, and some people prefer the things of this world. But others treasure it so much that they are willing to give up everything for it. 
The kingdom begins with God. He is the one who sows the seed; he is the one who hires the workers and gives the talents. He is the one who seeks a harvest, who sets the standards, who makes the judgments, who gives both grace and duties. He tells us to forgive others and to work for the kingdom. 
When Jesus used parables to describe the kingdom, he did not describe a wonderful world that comes only after the King returns. Rather, he described a time of trials, choices and growth, and then a judgment when the King returns. Jesus does not describe what the kingdom looks like after that. God’s kingdom includes both positive consequences and negative consequences. Jesus described our own age as a time of invitation, testing and growth.
The kingdom of God is now in a stage of growth, in which we are given grace, and given opportunity to bear fruit. We are expected to be forgiving, to be working, and to be ready. For the time will come when the kingdom will be like a harvest, when accounts will be paid, and decisions will be made as to who enjoys the celebration.
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Preaching in the Early Church
What is the true gospel, the gospel revealed in the Bible? There are several ways to approach Scripture to learn what the gospel is. 
One would be to focus on the teachings of Jesus, who often called his own message “the gospel of the kingdom of God.” We could see how he described the kingdom of God in his parables and in his other teachings. We have done this in previous studies. 
But this is only part of the biblical picture. We should also remember that Jesus told his disciples some things privately, and told them not to tell the public until after his crucifixion and resurrection. So perhaps the gospel was more clearly revealed after the Holy Spirit empowered the apostles for their mission. Because of this possibility, we should also find out what Jesus’ disciples actually taught. 
In this study, we will focus on the book of Acts. We will compare the apostolic gospel with the message of Jesus to see if they are the same. 
1. When Matthew wrote his book about the life and ministry of Jesus, he was inspired to end the book with some final instructions—the last words of Jesus that the readers needed. What did Jesus tell his disciples to do? Matthew 28:19-20:
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

Luke also tells us what Jesus expected his apostles to preach. How did he describe it? Luke 24:46-47:
This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 

Jesus’ commission to his church can be phrased in several ways. It can be called the gospel of the kingdom of God, but none of the commission verses happens to use that particular phrase. The content of the message is much more important than the label we use for it. 
The content of the message is repentance and forgiveness of sins, which will be preached in Jesus’ name, that is, by his authority, continuing the ministry he began. People who believe are to be baptized and taught, and they will be saved. It’s a message of repentance, salvation and teaching. 
It is a self-replicating message and mission, since one of the commands that Jesus’ disciples are to teach is the command to go and make more disciples. It is to be taught and retaught to every generation. 
2. The book of Acts reports Jesus’ last-minute instructions to his followers. What did he say? Acts 1:8:
You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.

Jesus gave his apostles the task of being his witnesses. Throughout the book, Luke shows that the apostles were witnesses of Jesus in Jerusalem, Samaria and all the way to Rome. 
The word “witness” is important in the book of Acts. “Witness” is a courtroom term. In a trial, witnesses are called to tell what they have seen and heard. Similarly, the apostles preached what they had seen and heard of Jesus. They were his witnesses, testifying to the truth about him. 
The Greek word for “testify” is martyreo, and the word for “witness” is similar: martyr. We get the English word “martyr” from the fact that many people who were witnesses for Jesus were killed because of their faith. Their willingness to die for Jesus was a powerful testimony that they firmly believed that salvation was given only through him. They were his witnesses to the very end. 
3. Luke includes numerous sermons in Acts, the “history of the early church.” What was Peter inspired to preach about on the Day of Pentecost? Acts 2:14-36. 
Then Peter stood up with the Eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd: “Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you; listen carefully to what I say. 15 These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! 16 No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
17 “‘In the last days, God says,
  I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 
Your sons and daughters will prophesy, 
  your young men will see visions,
  your old men will dream dreams.
18 Even on my servants, both men and women,
  I will pour out my Spirit in those days,
  and they will prophesy. 
19 I will show wonders in the heavens above
  and signs on the earth below, 
  blood and fire and billows of smoke.
20 The sun will be turned to darkness
  and the moon to blood 
  before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.
21 And everyone who calls
  on the name of the Lord will be saved.’ 
22 “Fellow Israelites, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him, as you yourselves know. 23 This man was handed over to you by God’s deliberate plan and foreknowledge; and you, with the help of wicked men, put him to death by nailing him to the cross. 24 But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him. 25 David said about him:
“‘I saw the Lord always before me.
  Because he is at my right hand,
  I will not be shaken.
26 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
  my body also will rest in hope,
27 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
  you will not let your holy one see decay. 
28 You have made known to me the paths of life;
  you will fill me with joy in your presence.’ 
29 “Fellow Israelites, I can tell you confidently that the patriarch David died and was buried, and his tomb is here to this day. 30 But he was a prophet and knew that God had promised him on oath that he would place one of his descendants on his throne. 31 Seeing what was to come, he spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that he was not abandoned to the realm of the dead, nor did his body see decay. 32 God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of it. 33 Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said,
“‘The Lord said to my Lord:
  “Sit at my right hand
35 until I make your enemies
  a footstool for your feet.”’ 
36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.” 

Peter began by explaining the miracle of tongues. What was his focus after that? See verse 22 above. What was his main point? See verse 36. What were the people supposed to do with this information—what difference was it to make in their lives? Verse 38:
Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 

4. Peter gave another sermon in chapter 3. Again, he began by explaining a miracle (verse 12). What then did he preach about? Verses 13-18. 
12 When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? 13 The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus. You handed him over to be killed, and you disowned him before Pilate, though he had decided to let him go. 14 You disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked that a murderer be released to you. 15 You killed the author of life, but God raised him from the dead. We are witnesses of this. 16 By faith in the name of Jesus, this man whom you see and know was made strong. It is Jesus’ name and the faith that comes through him that has completely healed him, as you can all see.
17 “Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Messiah would suffer.

What were the people encouraged to do? Verse 19. 
Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord.

The focus of these sermons is Jesus. Peter said that Jesus would return and restore everything, but the focus of his message was not on the future. Rather, he focused on what Jesus had already done, and how people were to respond to that right now. 
Peter talked about Jesus’ life, death and resurrection, his fulfillment of Scripture, and his identity as Lord and Christ. Peter called for repentance and baptism, and he offered the Holy Spirit and forgiveness. That was his concluding exhortation, the main point he wanted people to get. 
5. The next sermon in Acts is a long message by Stephen, who preached to the Jewish court. He began with an overview of history (Acts 7:1-50). What accusation did Stephen then make against the Jewish leaders? Verses 51-52.
51 “You stiff-necked people! Your hearts and ears are still uncircumcised. You are just like your ancestors: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 52 Was there ever a prophet your ancestors did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him.

This made them angry. What then did Stephen testify before the court? Verse 56:
“Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”

Stephen’s witness made the Sanhedrin so angry that they cut his sermon short and stoned him to death. His witness to Jesus made him a martyr. We do not know for sure how he would have concluded his speech/sermon, but as it turns out, his dying words were a message about forgiveness through Jesus (verse 60): 
Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep. 

6. The next sermon that Luke reports is the sermon Peter gave in the house of Cornelius. This is a short sermon, perhaps because Cornelius already knew much of the message (Acts 10:36-37). But Peter repeated the most important parts. What was the focus? Verses 38-41. 
37 You know what has happened throughout the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached— 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him. 
39 “We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a cross, 40 but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. 41 He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. 43 All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” 

How did Peter summarize the commission Jesus had given the apostles? Verse 42. How did he conclude? Verse 43. 
7. Luke then gives us some sermons by the apostle Paul, who spoke to four different audiences: Jews in Pisidia, Gentiles in Athens, Jews in Jerusalem, and civil rulers. Although Paul used different approaches for these audiences, some aspects of the message remained the same. In the synagogue in Pisidia, Paul began with Israel’s history (Acts 13:16-22). What did he concentrate on for most of the sermon? Verses 23-37. What was the conclusion, the main point? Verses 38-39. 
23 “From this man’s descendants God has brought to Israel the Savior Jesus, as he promised. 24 Before the coming of Jesus, John preached repentance and baptism to all the people of Israel. 25 As John was completing his work, he said: ‘Who do you suppose I am? I am not the one you are looking for. But there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.’ 
26 “Fellow children of Abraham and you God-fearing Gentiles, it is to us that this message of salvation has been sent. 27 The people of Jerusalem and their rulers did not recognize Jesus, yet in condemning him they fulfilled the words of the prophets that are read every Sabbath. 28 Though they found no proper ground for a death sentence, they asked Pilate to have him executed. 29 When they had carried out all that was written about him, they took him down from the cross and laid him in a tomb. 30 But God raised him from the dead, 31 and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.
32 “We tell you the good news: What God promised our ancestors 33 he has fulfilled for us, their children, by raising up Jesus. As it is written in the second Psalm:
“‘You are my son;
  today I have become your father.’ 
34 God raised him from the dead so that he will never be subject to decay. As God has said,
“‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings promised to David.’ 
35 So it is also stated elsewhere:
“‘You will not let your holy one see decay.’ 
36 “Now when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. 37 But the one whom God raised from the dead did not see decay.
38 “Therefore, my friends, I want you to know that through Jesus the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you. 39 Through him everyone who believes is set free from every sin, a justification you were not able to obtain under the law of Moses. 

8. In Athens, Paul faced a different crowd. He could not begin with Scripture or Jewish history. But he could start with a contemporary situation (Acts 17:22-23) and introduce them to the Creator God (verses 24-28). What did Paul exhort the people to do? Verse 30. How did Paul end his message? Verse 31. 
30 In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. 31 For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.”

9. In front of a Jerusalem crowd, Paul gave a more personal history—his own history before conversion, then his conversion and his commission. How did Ananias describe Paul’s mission? Acts 22:15. 
You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard.
10. In front of King Agrippa, Paul again gave his personal testimony. As Paul describes it, what did Jesus tell him to preach? Acts 26:16-18. 
‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

How did he describe his own preaching? Verse 20. How did he summarize his own message? Verse 23. 
20 First to those in Damascus, then to those in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I preached that they should repent and turn to God and demonstrate their repentance by their deeds. 21 That is why some Jews seized me in the temple courts and tried to kill me. 22 But God has helped me to this very day; so I stand here and testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen — 23 that the Messiah would suffer and, as the first to rise from the dead, would bring the message of light to his own people and to the Gentiles.

Keeping in mind that some of the sermons were not finished, let us see what they have in common: 
* All of them mention God. 
* All of them mention Jesus. 
* Seven of them mention Jesus’ death. 
* Seven mention his resurrection. 
* Four say that he is now exalted. 
* Seven mention forgiveness of sins. 
* Five mention repentance. 
* Three mention the need for faith. 
* Five of them mention Scripture. 
* None of them use the word “kingdom.” 
Luke tells us that the early church preached the gospel of the kingdom of God, but from the examples he gives us, we see that it is not necessary to use the word kingdom when we preach the gospel. And we do not need to describe a future age. 
The gospel is good news right now, but it is good only if we are able to participate in it— and we do that through Jesus Christ. He is the one we need to hear about, since he is the one who makes it possible. 
The book of Acts shows us that gospel preaching should focus on Jesus Christ, especially his death and resurrection, and on repentance, forgiveness and salvation through him. 
For further reading 
For further study about the gospel, you may want to consult one of these titles: 
* Green, Michael. Evangelism in the Early Church. Eerdmans, 1970; Harold Shaw, 1995. 
* George Eldon Ladd. “Kingdom of Christ, God, Heaven,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, edited by Walter Elwell (Baker, 1984). Ladd also wrote Gospel of the Kingdom (Eerdmans, 1959), and there are several relevant chapters in his Theology of the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1993). 
* Harry Poe. The Gospel and Its Meaning: A Theology for Evangelism and Church Growth. Zondervan, 1996. 
* Robert H. Stein. “Kingdom of God,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology, edited by Walter Elwell (Baker, 1996). Stein also wrote The Method and Message of Jesus’ Teaching (Westminster/John Knox, 1995). 
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Your Invitation to the Kingdom of God
Everyone has some concept of right and wrong, and everyone has done something wrong even by his or her own definition. “To err is human,” says a common proverb. Everyone has betrayed a friend, broken a promise or hurt someone’s feelings. Everyone has experienced the feeling of guilt.
People therefore want God to stay away from them. They do not want a day of judgment, because they know they cannot stand before God with a clear conscience. They know they should obey him, and they also know that they have not. They are ashamed and guilty.
How can their guilt be erased? How can the conscience be cleared? “To forgive is divine,” the proverb concludes. God himself will forgive.
Many people know the proverb, but somehow do not believe that God is divine enough to forgive their sins. They still feel guilty. They still fear the appearance of God and the day of judgment.
However, God has already appeared — in the person of Jesus Christ. He did not come to condemn, but to save. He brought a message of forgiveness, and he died on a cross to guarantee that we may be forgiven. The message of Jesus, the message of the cross, is good news for all who feel their guilt. Jesus, the divine human, has died for us. Forgiveness is given freely to all.
We need this message of good news! Christ’s gospel brings peace of mind, happiness and personal victory.
The true gospel, the real good news, is the gospel Jesus preached. It’s the gospel the apostles preached: Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2), Jesus Christ in Christians, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27), the resurrection from the dead, the message of hope and salvation for humanity — this is the gospel of the kingdom of God!
God has given his church the commission to proclaim this message, and zeal of his Spirit to accomplish the task.
In 1 Corinthians 15:1-8, Paul described the gospel Jesus gave his church. Notice carefully his words: 
Brothers and sisters, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. 2 By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.
3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born.

What Paul calls “of first importance” is the fact that Jesus is the Messiah or Christ, that he died for our sins, was buried and was raised, all according to the Scriptures. Further, he highlights the fact that there were plenty of witnesses to Christ’s resurrection, lest any should doubt that Jesus was really raised from the dead.
“By this gospel you are saved,” Paul asserts. Our goal, like Paul’s, should be to pass on that which we have received, that which is “of first importance.” What we must pass on is exactly what Paul and the other apostles received — that which is of first importance — “that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.”
All other biblical teaching hinges on these primary facts. Only the Son of God could die for our sins, and it is only because he died and was raised again from the dead that we can live in steadfast assurance of his return and of our inheritance of eternal life.
Therefore John could write: 
9 We accept human testimony, but God’s testimony is greater because it is the testimony of God, which he has given about his Son. 10 Whoever believes in the Son of God accepts this testimony. Whoever does not believe God has made him out to be a liar, because they have not believed the testimony God has given about his Son. 11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. (1 John 5:9-12)
The gospel Jesus preached
Some people can get quite excited about Bible prophecy, it seems, but have a hard time getting excited about the central message of the Bible — salvation through Jesus Christ. God has given Christians the most precious gift possible and the role of telling others how they, too, can receive that gift.
In describing to the centurion Cornelius the apostles’ commission, Peter said: “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name” (Acts 10:42-43).
This is the supreme message, the good news, which the apostles came to see was the central message of all the prophets — that Jesus Christ is the One appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead, and that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name!
Most central truth
Luke wrote that Jesus reminded his disciples of the central truth of his message just before he ascended: 
Then he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. 46 He told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. (Luke 24:45-48)

When Jesus opened the apostles’ minds so they could understand the Scriptures, what was it that he caused them to understand the Scriptures to contain? In other words, what is, according to Jesus, the central, most important truth to understand from the Old Testament Scriptures? It is that Christ would suffer and rise from the dead, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins would be preached in his name to all nations!
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved,” Peter preached (Acts 4:12).
But what about the gospel of the kingdom of God? Didn’t Jesus preach the good news of the kingdom of God? Of course he did! Is the gospel of the kingdom of God different from the gospel Paul, Peter and John preached about salvation in Jesus Christ? Not at all!
Entrance into the kingdom of God is salvation. Being saved and entering the kingdom of God are the same thing! Receiving eternal life is the same thing as receiving salvation, because salvation is being saved from sin, which brings death.
In Jesus there is life — eternal life. Eternal life requires forgiveness of sin. Forgiveness of sin, or justification, comes only by faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is both Judge and Redeemer. And he is also King of that kingdom. The gospel of the kingdom of God is the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ. Jesus and his apostles preached the same message — Jesus Christ is the Son of God and the one and only way to receive salvation, deliverance, eternal life and entrance into the kingdom of God.
And when one’s mind is opened to understand the Old Testament prophecies, as Jesus opened the apostles’ minds (Luke 24:45), it becomes plain that the central message of the prophets, too, was Jesus Christ (Acts 10:43).
Let’s go further. John wrote, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them” (John 3:36). That’s plain language!
Jesus said: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). If there is anything we must understand from the Word of God, it is that a person cannot come to the Father, cannot know God, cannot inherit eternal life and cannot enter the kingdom of God, apart from Jesus Christ.
In his letter to the Colossians, Paul wrote: 
Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:12-14)

Notice how the inheritance of the saints, the kingdom of light, the kingdom of the Son, redemption and forgiveness of sins all coalesce together as one seamless garment of the word of truth that is the gospel.
In verse 4, Paul speaks of the Colossians’ “faith in Christ Jesus” and “the love you have for all God’s people.” He describes that faith and love as springing “from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel that has come to you” (verses 5-6). Again, the gospel is centered in the magnificent hope of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God through faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, by whom we have received redemption.
In verses 21-23, Paul continues: 
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.

In verses 25-29, Paul continues to underscore the gospel to which he was commissioned and his goal in proclaiming it. He wrote: 
I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— 26 the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. 27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
28 He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. 29 To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me. 
What the gospel is all about
Jesus Christ is what the gospel is all about. It is about his identity and activity as the Son of God (John 3:18), as judge of the living and the dead (2 Timothy 4:1), as the Christ (Acts 17:3), as Savior (2 Timothy 1:10), as High Priest (Hebrews 4:14), as advocate (I John 2:1), as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 17:14), as the firstborn among many siblings (Romans 8:29), as friend (John 15:14-15).
It is about him as Shepherd and Overseer of our souls (1 Peter 2:25), as the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29), as our Passover sacrificed for us (1 Corinthians 5:7), as the image of the invisible God and the firstborn over all creation (Colossians 1:15), as the head of the church and the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead (verse 18), as the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being (Hebrews 1:3), as the revealer of the Father (Matthew 11:27), as the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), as the door (John 10:7).
The gospel is about Christ as the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), as the ruler of the creation of God (Revelation 3:14), the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End (Revelation 22:13), as the Branch (Jeremiah 23:5), as the chief cornerstone (1 Peter 2:6), as the power of God and the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:24), as the desired of all nations (Haggai 2:7). It is about Christ the faithful and true witness (Revelation 3:14), the heir of all things (Hebrews 1:2), the light of the world (John 8:12), the living bread (John 6:51), the Root of Jesse (Isaiah 11:10), our salvation (Luke 2:30), the sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2), the Word of life (1 John 1:1), declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead (Romans 1:4).
Paul wrote, “No one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus Christ is the heart and core, the central theme, the foundation of the gospel.
One cannot preach anything else and be consistent with the Bible. Jesus told the leaders of the Jews: “You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.” (John 5:39-40).
Message of salvation
The message Christians are called to proclaim is about salvation, which is eternal life in the kingdom of God. To receive that eternal salvation, to enter the kingdom of God, one must come through the only true Door, the only true Way — Jesus Christ. He is the King of the kingdom.
John wrote, “No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23). Paul wrote to Timothy, “There is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all people. This has now been witnessed to at the proper time” (1 Timothy 2:5-6).
We are warned in Hebrews 2:3: “How shall we escape if we ignore so great a salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him.” The message of salvation was first announced by Jesus himself — it was Jesus’ own message from the Father.
John wrote of God’s own testimony about his Son: “This is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life” (1 John 5:11-12).
John again showed the emphasis on the Son in John 5:22-23: “The Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.”
That is why the church is to preach about Jesus Christ! Isaiah prophesied, 
This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, 
  a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; 
the one who relies on it
  will never be stricken with panic. (Isaiah 28:16)

Walking in the new life to which we as Christians are called in Jesus Christ, trusting in him as our sure foundation and eagerly looking forward to his second coming, we can rejoice in the hope and assurance of our eternal inheritance.
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A Call to Live the Future Here and Now
“After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’” (Mark 1:14-15).
This good news Jesus Christ brought is known as the gospel. It is a potent, life-changing and life-transforming message. The gospel not only convicts and converts, it will eventually confound all who stand against it.
The gospel is “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes” (Romans 1:16). The gospel is our invitation from God to live on an altogether different plane. It is good news of a future inheritance to be bestowed in full when Christ returns. But it is also an invitation to an invigorating spiritual reality that can be ours here and now.
Paul describes the gospel as “the gospel of Christ” (1 Corinthians 9:12), “the gospel of God” (Romans 15:16), “the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15). Paul took his cue from Jesus and began to redefine the Jewish view of the kingdom of God around the universal significance of Christ’s first appearing.
As the New Dictionary of Theology explains, in the writings of Paul, “the preacher [Christ] becomes the preached one” (page 278). The Jesus who walked the dusty roads of Judea and Galilee, Paul taught, is now the resurrected Christ who sits at the right hand of God, and who is “the head over every power and authority” (Colossians 2:10).
In the gospel according to Paul, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were “of first importance,” the key events in God’s plan (1 Corinthians 15:1-11). The gospel was good news for the poor and downtrodden. History was going somewhere. Right, not might, would ultimately triumph. The pierced hand had triumphed over the iron fist. The kingdom of evil was being replaced by the reign of Jesus Christ, an order of things that Christians already experienced in part.
Paul stressed this aspect of the gospel to the Colossians: 
Giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. 13 For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:12-14)

For beleaguered Christians in all ages, the gospel is both a present reality and a future hope. The resurrected Christ, who presides over time, space and everything that happens here below, is the Christian’s champion. The One who ascended into the heavenly realms is the ever-present source of power (Ephesians 3:20-21).
The good news is that Jesus Christ triumphed over every obstacle during his earthly life. The way of the cross is the rough but triumphant road into the kingdom of God. That is why Paul could sum up the gospel succinctly: “I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified” (1 Corinthians 2:2).
The great reversal
When Jesus appeared in Galilee earnestly preaching the gospel, he expected a response. He expects a response today.
But Jesus’ original invitation to enter the kingdom was not received in a vacuum. Jesus’ proclamation of the kingdom of God, accompanied by impressive signs and wonders, electrified a nation chafing under the Roman Empire. This is one reason Jesus had to clarify what he meant by the kingdom of God.
The Jews in Jesus’ day were looking for a strongman to restore their nation to the glory days of David and Solomon. But Jesus’ message was “doubly revolutionary,” in the words of British scholar N.T. Wright. For one thing, Jesus took the popular expectation of a Jewish superstate throwing off the Roman yoke, and transformed it. He turned the widespread hope of political salvation into a message of spiritual deliverance: the gospel!
“The kingdom of God is here, he seemed to be saying, but it’s not like you thought it was going to be” (Wright, Who Was Jesus?, page 98).
Jesus shocked people with what his good news implied. “Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first,” Jesus emphasized (Matthew 19:30).
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth,” he told his own people, the Jews, “when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out” (Luke 13:28). The great banquet was for everyone (Luke 14:16-24). The Gentiles were invited to the kingdom, too.
And one thing more, something just as revolutionary. This prophet from Nazareth seemed to have a lot of time for the disenfranchised — from lepers and physically disadvantaged folk to money-grabbing tax collectors — and sometimes even the hated Roman oppressors.
The good news Jesus brought upset everyone’s assumptions, even those of his own disciples (Luke 9:51-56). Jesus insisted that the kingdom they looked for as a future event was already dynamically present in his ministry. As he said after one dramatic episode: “If I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20). Those who saw Jesus in action, in other words, were experiencing the presence of the future. 
Jesus turned popular expectation on its head in at least three ways:
1. Jesus taught the good news that the kingdom comes as a pure gift — the reign of God bringing healing in its wake already. Thus, Jesus inaugurated “the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19; Isaiah 61:1-2). But the people getting into the kingdom were the weary and the burdened, the poor and the beggars, repentant tax collectors and harlots, and children and social outcasts. To social outcasts and spiritually lost sheep, Jesus proclaimed himself their shepherd.
2. Jesus’ good news was also for those willing to turn to God through repentance. They would find God to be like a generous father who scans the horizon for his wandering sons and daughters and spots them “while…still a long way off” (Luke 15:20). The good news of the gospel meant that anyone saying the words, “God, have mercy on me, a sinner” (Luke 18:13), and really meaning them, would find God a sympathetic listener. Always. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). To those who believed, this was the best news they could ever hear.
3. Jesus’ gospel also meant that, despite all appearances to the contrary, nothing could stop the triumph of the kingdom Jesus Christ had inaugurated. Though that kingdom would meet fierce and unrelenting resistance, it would ultimately triumph in supernatural power and splendor.
Christ told his disciples: “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats” (Matthew 25:31-32).
Jesus’ gospel message had a dynamic tension between the “already” and the “not yet.” The gospel of the kingdom referred to a rule of God that was already active —“the blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor” (Matthew 11:5).
But the kingdom was “not yet” in the sense that its full consummation still lay ahead. To understand the gospel is to appreciate this twofold aspect — the interval between the promised presence of the King who lives inside his people now and his dramatic reappearance.
The gospel of your salvation
Paul the missionary helped initiate the second great movement of the gospel — its expansion from tiny Judea into the sophisticated Greco-Roman world of the middle first century of the present era. Paul, the repentant onetime persecutor of Christians, refocused the blazing light of the gospel through the prism of day-to-day living. He tapped into the practical implications of the gospel even as he exalted the glorified Christ.
In the face of fanatical resistance, Paul shared with his fellow Christians the breathtaking significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ: 
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. 22 But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation — 23 if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. (Colossians 1:21-22)

Paul said, “This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant” (v. 23).
Reconciliation. Without blemish. Grace. Deliverance. Forgiveness. And not just in the future, but here and now. That was Paul’s gospel. The resurrection, the climax to which the Synoptic Gospels and John pointed their readers (John 20:31), released the power within the gospel for daily Christian living.
Jesus Christ’s resurrection certified the gospel. Therefore, taught Paul, those events in far-off Judea give all men and women hope: “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed —a righteousness that is by faith from first to last” (Romans 1:16-17).
A personal gospel
John brought still another dimension to the gospel, presenting Jesus Christ as he was remembered by “the disciple whom he loved” (John 19:26), a man with the heart of a pastor, a church leader deeply concerned about people, their cares and fears. “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
John’s presentation of the gospel revolves around the thrilling phrase, “that by believing you may have life.” “The central theme of the Synoptics is the presence of the eschatological kingdom of God,” wrote Professor George Eldon Ladd. “John has almost nothing to say about this theme…. John’s central theme is eternal life as a present possession” (“Eschatology,” The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia, vol. 2, page 136).
John brilliantly enshrines another aspect of the gospel Jesus Christ in some of his most personal, intimate and up-close moments. John’s Gospel is a vivid account of the personal ministering presence of the Messiah.
In John’s Gospel, we meet a Christ who was a powerful public preacher (John 7:37-46). We see Jesus as warm and hospitable. From his welcoming invitation, “Come…and you will see” (John 1:39), to the challenge to doubting Thomas to put his finger in the nail marks in his hands (John 20:27), here is an unforgettable portrait of the One who “became flesh and made his dwelling among us” (John 1:14).
People felt so welcome and comfortable with Jesus Christ that they engaged him in lively give-and-take (John 6:5-8). They reclined next to him at a meal while eating out of the same dish with him (John 13:23-26). They loved him so dearly as to impulsively swim to shore at the very sight of him to enjoy an impromptu breakfast he had prepared with his own hands (John 21:7-14).
The Gospel of John reminds us of how much the good news revolves around Jesus Christ, the example he set and the eternal life available to us through him (John 10:10).
It reminds us that preaching the gospel isn’t enough. We have to live it as well. John offers encouragement: Others may be attracted by our example to share the good news of the kingdom. That is what happened to the Samaritan woman Jesus met at the well (John 4:27-30) and to Mary of Magdala (John 20:10-18).
The One who wept at Lazarus’ grave, the humble servant who washed his disciples’ feet, is alive today. He offers us his own presence through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).
Jesus actively leads his people today through the Holy Spirit. His invitation is as personal and as encouraging as ever: “Come…and you will see” (John 1:39).
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Already in the Kingdom: A Study of Colossians 1
Colosse was a small city in Asia Minor, not important for much of anything — it is known to us chiefly because the apostle Paul wrote a letter to the believers who lived there. The church was started by Epaphras, who had learned about Christ from Paul, so even though Paul hadn’t started the church, he felt a sense of responsibility for its health and growth.
Strange ideas were circulating in Colossae. False teachers were saying that knowing about Jesus was a good beginning, but that believers needed deeper wisdom and some new ascetic practices in order to reach their true potential. Epaphras had tried to set them straight, but Paul thought it would be helpful for him to assure the Colossians that the gospel they heard from Epaphras was indeed the complete gospel.
Address information (verses 1-2)
The letter begins by saying who wrote it: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, and Timothy our brother.” Greek letters didn’t normally name companions as co-authors, so it is likely that Timothy helped write this letter.
Next, the recipients are greeted: “To God’s holy people in Colossae, the faithful brothers and sisters in Christ: Grace and peace to you from God our Father.” Paul believes that they are faithful; he does not seem to think that they are in serious danger of apostasy — they just need some reassurance.
Prayer of gratitude (verses 3-12)
Greek letters often began with a prayer or blessing; Paul modifies this custom to tell the Colossians what he prays about. He praises them indirectly, giving God the credit for their faith and love: “We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people.”
Their growth comes from knowledge the gospel has given them: “The faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message, the gospel that has come to you.” By the word “hope,” Paul is referring to the object of our hope — a heavenly reward. Christian life, including faith toward God and love toward others, is given a foundation by knowing that God gives us eternal life.
Paul reminds them that they are part of a growing movement: “The gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace.” He assures them that they have heard all the truth — they do not need any supplements or add-ons to bring them to a higher level of spirituality.
“You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.” Since Paul could not go everywhere, he trained people like Epaphras to be part of a missionary team that carried the gospel into outlying areas. He brought back news to Paul that the people in Colosse were responding to the gospel.
After this, Paul resumes the description of his prayers for the people: “For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives.” Paul did not wait for a crisis to pray for the people — as soon as he heard about their love, he started praying for their growth in wisdom. He did not need additional information — he wanted them to grow in their understanding of the message they had already received.
Why did he pray for this? Because he wanted to see their faith and love be evident in the way they lived: “so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.” Paul then lists four ways in which believers might please God:
1. “Bearing fruit in every good work,
2. “growing in the knowledge of God,
3. “being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, and
4. “giving joyful thanks to the Father.”
Paul wanted the believers to know God’s will so they would do good works, learn more about God, have strength to withstand difficulties, and remain thankful.
Already qualified (verses 13-14)
One reason to be thankful is that God has already “qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light.” We could not qualify on our own, but God did it for us. How did he do that? “He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
Our sins would disqualify us from the kingdom of light, but God, in Jesus, has forgiven our sins, so we are now qualified. Just as God redeemed the Israelites out of Egypt and gave them land as an inheritance, he redeemed or rescued us from the dominion of darkness and sin, and has given us our inheritance.
Christ is supreme (verses 15-23)
In a poetic passage, Paul then describes how great Christ is: “The Son is the image of the invisible God…” He shows us what God is like — not in physical characteristics, but in spiritual attributes such as love and righteousness. He is also “…the firstborn over all creation.” This does not refer to a birth or any other beginning in time. Rather, “firstborn” refers to a pre-eminent status.
Christ has this superiority because he is the Creator: “For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” Christians do not need to appease government officials or spirit beings; we are already approved by Christ, the highest of all powers.
Paul summarizes: “He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.” He sustains all that he has created.
After recounting Christ’s role with creation, Paul describes his role in redemption, the new creation: “He is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead [the first to be raised from the realm of the dead], so that in everything he might have the supremacy.”
Paul again mentions that Jesus is a complete representation of the Father, and a complete Savior: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him [Jesus is fully divine],and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.”
Earlier, Paul used the metaphor of redemption. Here, he describes salvation as reconciliation, making peace between enemies. God achieved this peace by sending Jesus, who was not only fully divine, but also fully human — someone who could represent all creation in his atoning death on the cross. The Creator became part of creation in order to rescue us from our own sinfulness. In him we died, and in him we are raised to new life — life with God.
“Once you were alienated from God, Paul says, and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.” Yes, our sins had separated us from God. “But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death.”
Why? “To present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.” The debt has been paid, the sin has been erased; there can be no accusation for those who trust in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8:1, 33-34). When we appear before God, we are holy in Christ — fully qualified for his kingdom.
There is one requirement: “…if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel.” You are on the right boat, headed to the right destination. Don’t jump ship — this is the right ship. The ticket has been paid for, so you don’t need to work for it. Jesus has done all that needs to be done — he is the only one who could, and the only one who did.
“This is the gospel that you heard,” Paul assures the Colossians, “and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” You have heard the real gospel, and you already know enough, Paul says — you do not need any secret, obscure information or any extra rituals. You are already in the kingdom of Christ. It’s good news!
Paul’s work for the church (verses 24-29)
After Paul mentions that he is a servant of the gospel, he reflects on the fact that his ministry is rewarded not with wealth, but with persecution. (Col. 4:2 indicates that he is writing from prison.) But he sees a positive role for his troubles: “Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church.”
There was nothing lacking in Christ’s afflictions — what he did was fully sufficient for our salvation. What is lacking, from Paul’s perspective, is that Paul has not experienced nearly as many afflictions as his Lord did. So in his sufferings he is filling up this deficiency, and he is glad to do it, because he is suffering for serving Christ, for helping the church grow.
He serves Christ by working for his body, the church: “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness.” Here Paul again mentions that the Colossians have the complete gospel. He describes the message as “the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.” It’s not a mystery anymore — it is revealed.
“God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, is doing his best to help everyone hear the message: Christ is in you, and he is our assurance of glory. In him we have forgiveness, redemption, and reconciliation with God. By being joined to him, we are transferred into his kingdom, and there is laid up for us in heaven a great reward.
“He [Christ] is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ.” There is no secret part of the message, or additional levels of initiation, as many Greek religions had. No, Paul is proclaiming the full gospel, enough to bring everyone to complete glory. Christ is all they need to know.
“To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me” (v. 29). Just as he gave God thanks for the faith and love of the Colossians, here he gives Christ credit for all the work that he is doing. Just as creation was done by, through, and for Christ, the new creation is being done by him, through him, and for him, too.
Questions for discussion
* How often do I pray that others might grow in wisdom and knowledge? (v. 9)
* Is it possible for people to live a life worthy of the Lord and do everything he wants? (v. 10)
* Do I feel like I am in the kingdom of Christ? (v. 13)
* Is Christ supreme in my life and thought? (v. 18)
* When I was alienated from God, did I feel alienated? (v. 21)
* What supplements do people try to put on the gospel today?
* Have I suffered in letting people in on the secret of Jesus? (v. 24)
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About the Author
Chapters 5 and 6 are a corporate product, written by personnel in Grace Communion International. Chapters 1-4 and 7 were written by Michael Morrison, who received a PhD from Fuller Theological Seminary in 2006. He is Dean of Faculty and Professor of New Testament for Grace Communion Seminary. He and his wife live in Arcadia, California; their two children are adults. He is also associate pastor of NewLife Fellowship in Pasadena, California. He is the author of numerous publications, including:
Print:
Who Needs a New Covenant? The Rhetorical Function of the Covenant Motif in the Argument of Hebrews. (print only)
Sabbath, Circumcision and Tithing (available in print and as an e-book)
E-books – (available in the same place as you obtained this e-book)
Discipleship 101: Basic Christian Teachings
Inspiration, Authority, and Reliability of Scripture
The Purpose for Human Life: Learning to Be Like Jesus Christ
What Does the Bible Say About the Sabbath?
What Does the Bible Say About Women in Church Leadership?
The Bible: A Guided Tour (co-author)
Exploring the Word of God: Acts of the Apostles (volumes 1 and 4) (co-author) 
The Proverbs 31 Woman and Other Biblical Women (co-author)
Would you like to read more? 
Readers in the United States are eligible to receive a free booklet, The God Revealed in Jesus Christ: A Brief Introduction to Trinitarian Theology. This booklet explains, in simple language, how all our most important questions are answered by a simple starting point: Who is God? We can be confident that God has planned something excellent for us. To have a hard copy mailed to you, phone 1-800-423-4444. Readers in other nations may read the booklet online at www.gci.org/god/revealed. 
Speaking of Life…
Dr. Joseph Tkach, president of Grace Communion International, comments in a video blog each week, giving a biblical perspective on how we live in the light of God’s love. Most programs are about three minutes long – available in video, audio, and text. Go to www.speakingoflife.org. 
You’re Included…
Dr. J. Michael Feazell talks to leading Trinitarian theologians about the good news that God loves you, wants you, and includes you in Jesus Christ. Most programs are about 28 minutes long. Our guests have included:
Ray Anderson, Fuller Theological Seminary 
Douglas A. Campbell, Duke Divinity School
Elmer Colyer, U. of Dubuque Theological Seminary 
Gary Deddo, InterVarsity Press 
Gordon Fee, Regent College
Trevor Hart, University of St. Andrews
George Hunsinger, Princeton Theological Seminary
C. Baxter Kruger, Perichoresis 
Jeff McSwain, Reality Ministries 
Paul Louis Metzger, Multnomah University
Paul Molnar, St. John’s University
Cherith Fee Nordling, Antioch Leadership Network
Andrew Root, Luther Seminary
Alan Torrance, University of St. Andrews
Robert T. Walker, Edinburgh University
William P. Young, author of The Shack
Programs are available free for viewing and downloading at www.youreincluded.org.
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About the publisher…
Grace Communion International is a Christian denomination with more than 50,000 members, worshiping in about 900 congregations in almost 100 nations and territories. We began in 1934 and our main office is in southern California. In the United States, we are members of the National Association of Evangelicals and similar organizations in other nations. We welcome you to visit our website at www.gci.org.
If you want to know more about the gospel of Jesus Christ, we offer help. We offer weekly worship services in hundreds of congregations worldwide. Perhaps you’d like to visit us. A typical worship service includes songs of praise, a message based on the Bible, and opportunity to meet people who have found Jesus Christ to be the answer to their spiritual quest. We try to be friendly, but without putting you on the spot. We do not expect visitors to give offerings—there’s no obligation. You are a guest.
To find a congregation, phone us or visit our website. If we don’t have a congregation near you, we encourage you to find another church that teaches the gospel of grace.
We also offer personal counsel. If you have questions about the Bible, salvation or Christian living, we are happy to talk. If you want to discuss faith, baptism or other matters, a pastor near you can discuss these on the phone or set up an appointment for a longer discussion. We are convinced that Jesus offers what people need most, and we are happy to share the good news of what he has done for all humanity. We like to help people learn about their new life in Christ, and to grow in that life. Come and see why we believe it’s the best news there could be!
Our work is funded by members of the church who donate part of their income to support the gospel. Jesus told his disciples to share the good news, and that is what we want to do in our literature, in our worship services, and in our day-to-day lives.
If this e-book has helped you and you want to pay some expenses, all donations are gratefully welcomed. In several nations, donations are tax-deductible. If you can’t afford to give anything, don’t worry about it. It is our gift to you. To make a donation online, go to www.gci.org/participate/donate.
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Grace Communion Seminary
Grace Communion Seminary serves the needs of pastors and others engaged in Christian service who want to grow deeper in relationship with our Triune God and to be able to more effectively serve in the Incarnational life of the church.
Grace is the essence of our lives. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ reveals God to us, grants us life in him, leads us in forgiving and being forgiven, and gives us salvation. Our Triune God and his grace and love revealed through Jesus Christ is the center of our theology.
Communion defines the relationship we have with God, Jesus, and one another (2 Corinthians 13:14). The communion of the Holy Spirit binds us with Jesus, enlivens God’s love in our hearts, and unites us as followers of Jesus Christ. We live in inseparable unity in Christ in the perpetual effects of the Incarnation, Crucifixion, Resurrection, Ascension, and Pentecost.
Seminary describes the scope of our educational goal. We offer graduate-level courses on the Internet. You can earn a nationally accredited master’s degree entirely online, without any need to travel. We want to help you minister more effectively where you are, not to uproot you. We teach from a perspective of Trinitarian Incarnational theology. For more information, go to www.gcs.edu. 
Grace Communion Seminary is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council, www.detc.org. The Accrediting Commission of DETC is listed by the U.S. Department of Education as a nationally recognized accrediting agency, and is a recognized member of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation.
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