Disciples ACTing OUT - Resurrection Kingdom

May 22, 2011 5th Sunday of Eastertide

Acts 7: 55-60, Psalm 31: 1-5, 15-16, 1 Peter 2: 2-10, John 14: 1-14, Mark 4: 26-34

We continue this week in our 5 week series Disciples ActingOut with a look at the Resurrection Kingdom. In the book of Acts which is Luke’s sequel to his gospel, we find the disciples of Jesus attempting to live their lives in the new Kingdom of God which has come in Jesus Christ. Throughout Acts, the followers of Jesus proclaim the resurrection of the Lord and the kingdom of God on earth.

I believe that I and many of you here have what I call an American hermeneutic when it comes to thinking about the Kingdom of God. Having an American hermeneutic simply means that we view a subject through a decidedly American lens.

Probably few of us have ever lived under a monarchy. We are conditioned by living our whole lives in a democratic republic. Therefore our understanding of what a monarchy is and does not come from personal experience.

We Americans view such things from afar. We surmise that a monarchy serves no real practical purpose? Since only a few countries in the world retain a absolute monarchy, where the king or queen has absolute rule, we observe royals as celebrities, figure heads, or a group of privileged blue-bloods. Because of my own American hermeneutic, I have always had difficulty accepting the idea that monarchs have some kind of God granted power over others simply because they were born into a particular family.

That being said though, let me also say that in the world of the Bible, both in the Old and New testaments, the rule of a monarch of one kind or another was the stark reality. Therefore, in the Bible the concept of kingdom is well defined, both in government and in religion.

As you know, when you read the Bible, you notice a great deal of kingdom language. Let me unpack that a little bit by looking at how a kingdom is defined. A monarch is a form of government in which the head of state reigns by virtue of some kind of perceived divine sanction. The actual monarch may be called by different names; a king or queen, an emperor or empress, sultan, emir, sheikh, etc.

A kingdom is understood as both a physical and spatial realm. The realm includes people and land, over which the monarch exercises his/her will over the whole realm. The subjects of the realm have no choice but to follow the will of the monarch otherwise they are in rebellion.

All through the gospels and the New Testament is the proclamation of the kingdom of God which is come to earth. The prayer that Jesus taught his disciples has the appeal for God's kingdom to come and God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Since the kingdom has come on earth in Jesus Christ, this prayer indicates that the kingdom is not yet fully come. (This will occur when Jesus returns.)

Jesus spoke a lot about the kingdom. He described God's kingdom in various ways: as a mustard seed (Mat 3:31-32); like leaven mixed with wheat (33), like a great treasure (44), like a pearl of high value (45), like a net (47), like ten virgins who are waiting for the bridegroom (Luke 5:1) and so on. These parables, these images, give us various ways to understand the kingdom of God, though none are completely clear. They stand as only signs pointing us to it.

Today's scripture is the ending of the story of Stephen and his death. (Stephen is considered by the church as the first martyr of the faith. The word martyr comes from the Greek word martus which means witness.)

Stephen was a tremendous disciple. You remember that he was one of those selected to take stewardship over the distribution of food in the church at Jerusalem. He was also a preacher, teacher and miracle worker. His teachings, signs and wonders had gotten him into dispute with some of the Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, and Cilicia. They began to speak badly of him, and to develop false witnesses against him. Because of their evil treachery Stephen was brought up on charges before the priests council of speaking against the temple and the law of Moses.

You can read about his (so-called) trial in Acts 6 and 7. Frankly his witness to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus helped his cause very little. In fact the Sanhedrin court of became so enraged with what he said that they "rushed" at him like a mob, grabbed him, threw him outside the city and stoned him to death, while the good Pharisee, Saul (who later would change his name to Paul) looked on with approval.

Well. Life in the kingdom of God, at least for Stephen, was certainly harsh! Stephen was following the rule and reign of God in the kingdom and was killed for his witness. He became a martyr for the gospel of Jesus Christ. He died for his witness to the resurrection, to the reign of Jesus Christ, who is at God's right hand, and to the reality of heaven...the God space.

I wish I had more time to talk about the vision that Stephen had, and about the evil that would kill a man for telling the truth, but I don't have time today.

Being a witness for the kingdom of God, the rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the world, is what disciples, you and I, are called to be. So when we Christians announce that the kingdom of God has come on the earth in Jesus Christ, what exactly do we mean?

1) That the realm of earth is now under the Lordship of Jesus Christ

2) That those who do the will of God, which includes following the Lordship of Jesus, are subjects of God's kingdom

3) That many people still do not know or accept the Lordship of the king

4) That many are in rebellion to the Lordship of the king

The early disciples faced the exact conditions in the kingdom.

On numerous occasions before Jesus was killed people wanted to know about the coming of the kingdom because the presence of God's kingdom was their constant hope. The Pharisees asked Jesus: ... when [is] the kingdom of God...coming, and he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed;nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you" (Luke 17: 20b-21).

Jesus also said that the those who are touched by the power of God, experience the coming of the kingdom (Mat 12:28). That means that all persons who do the things of God experience the kingdom of God coming into their lives. These things include but are not limited to: healing, forgiveness, love, justice, miracles, prayer. These things are the signs of the kingdom of God in a person's life.

We cannot say exactly what, where, how, when, and who are experiencing the kingdom of God in the present. We can merely see the signs of the kingdom...if we are looking for them. N.T. Wright says that the kingdom of God is both different from and also exactly alike things on earth. He says we are given signs that point us towards the future fullness of the kingdom of God saying "a [road] sign rarely has an actual photograph of the destination."[1] The only one who has experienced the absolute reality and the fullness of God's kingdom is the one who came from heaven...Jesus.

The disciples and all of us of the earth have no real reference to it. We only have the signs of it. And what are they?

In an earthly kingdom there are physical boundaries. The physical boundary of God's kingdom is something that can be described as a veil that separates us from seeing the kingdom clearly. Paul says that it is like looking through a dark mirror (1 Co 13:12). Apparently Stephen saw through the veil, just before he died...and reported back to the Sanhedrin of what he was seeing. The Revelation of Jesus Christ is a description of the kingdom, as reported by John from his vision when he was on Patmos Island. The kingdom of God is here with us, yet invisible to us most of the time.

In an earthly kingdom there are also royal subjects. The subjects of God's kingdom are those who experience the power of God in their lives; those who respond to and do God's will; those who act according to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

In an earthly kingdom the flags of the empire denote the identity of the realm. The flags fly high, go before the armies, and fly atop the palaces to identify the kingdom as being under the sovereign rule of the king. The flags of the Kingdom of God are those things that identify the disciples of Jesus Christ as his royal subjects (royal priesthood); participation in the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper, the faithful gathering together for worship, prayer, Bible study, following the call of God in their vocation, and exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit of God.

There are important differences between the kingdoms of the earth and the kingdom of heaven. (No time for all of them today.) The main one I want I want to point out today is this.

If you are a subject of the United Kingdom and you have a request of Queen Elizabeth, just try to hop down to the place for an audience with the queen. Well...you won't get in. You won't even get near the gate...if you try, you will be arrested. There is nothing royal about you to her majesty the queen...you are just a subject who has no rights to speak to the queen when you want to.

But...in the kingdom of God. You do have rights and privileges. You didn't have to earn them. They were given to you...freely. You can at anytime be in the presence of the King. In fact, the King will come to you. Because of what Jesus has done for you in bringing the kingdom of God to earth, you are not barred in any way from communicating with God. In fact, you will be treated like the King's own child (because that is who you are).

How could Stephen say to God in the moment of his death..."Lord, don't hold this sin against them"? Was he just a nice guy? Full of the Spirit, Stephen could say those words because he saw the kingdom of God that is there just past the veil. He knew beyond any doubt at all that the kingdom of God had come on earth.

The good news for us today is this: We are children of God, subjects of God' s kingdom, sister or brother to the Lord, with all the rights and privileges of royalty in the household of God.

Spread the word and let God's kingdom come! Amen.

[1] N.T. Wright. Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church. HarperOne. 2008. 55.