I was thinking about death-bed conversions, as you do, and that led me on to thinking about how we often try to centralise the gospel around us as individuals with “heaven or hell” being the decisive choice that has to be made. So, the mission of the Church becomes that of saving people from hell. (You might need to bear with me on this for a few moments – wait till the end before you decide whether to agree with me or not).
I believe that the Gospel is positive, that the Kingdom of God is positive. Having a mission to save people from hell sounds positive, but at its heart it is actually more of a negative approach than a positive one. The true Gospel is about saying that Jesus is alive, that He runs the show; it’s about leading people into a supernatural personal encounter with Him that radically changes their perspective on everything. That personal encounter is meant to lead to a very personal connection with Jesus (the Bible calls it Union, a permanent joining of two people, you and Jesus, where you can’t see where one finishes and the other starts). Our personal connection to Jesus, or Union with Him, should lead to us into going wherever He goes and happily being part of whatever He is up to, along with everyone else who is committed to being part of what He is up to.
What He is up to, is extending His Kingdom. It is an everlasting Kingdom. It’s not a kingdom that only exists on our side of the grave either. Isaiah 9 verse 7 says that “of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end”. His Kingdom is an everlasting kingdom (Psalm 145) Following Jesus means to be joined to Him and it means being a part of extending His Kingdom, both here and now and also in the life that is to come.
Jesus was far more focussed on His Kingdom than he was on hell. There are 124 references to the kingdom in the gospels by Him,and only 14 references to hell. Unfortunately western evangelical Christianity has concentrated more on the job of saving people from hell, than on extending the kingdom, which does not mean building church by the way. Often it has assumed that extending the kingdom was just a matter of saving people from hell – and then looking after them safely in church until they die and ‘go to heaven’. (Note: The Bible never talks about us ‘going to heaven’. It tells us to bring heaven to earth in this life and that there will be a new heaven and a new earth after this life).
When we concentrate our efforts on getting people “over the line” rather than looking for those who want to put their whole lives at the disposal of the King and throw themselves radically into His business, we end up with churches partly being warehouses for people who know that they have a ticket for heaven somewhere in a drawer at home.
Extending His Kingdom is radical work. It’s a corporate effort by the whole body of Christ. It’s a new way of living. A new culture. A new community. It’s a community that lives by supernatural power. It’s a new society whose influence is meant to affect the society that it lives among. If our gospel is simply “avoid hell and get a ticket for heaven” (and behave until you go), then it is a pitifully weak gospel that gathers people without telling them what they should be gathered for.
If our aim is to get people to ‘cross the line’ and ‘pray the prayer’ then the end result often is people gathered who have little interest in the radical work of the Kingdom. And of course, if they’re not really interested in it in this life, why would they be interested in it when this life moves into becoming the next life? The question is not so much, ‘what have we been saved from’, but ‘what are we saved for, and to?’ As Jesus says, “small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it”.
We are saved to a never ending future of being joyfully at the service of the King extending and establishing His Kingdom, the increase of which there shall be no end.
We are the Church. It is the highest calling a person cold ever have. We are in partnership with, and serve, The King of Kings. We are safe and secure in His Kingdom. There is a job to do and an adventure to be had, and it all started with the innocent phrase, “follow Me”.
Church is out there 