The Divine Mandate

Tell us, when will all this happen? What sign will signal your return and the end of the world?

Jesus told them, “Don’t let anyone mislead you,  for many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and threats of wars, but don’t panic. Yes, these things must take place, but the end won’t follow immediately.  Nation will go to war against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be famines and earthquakes in many parts of the world.  But all this is only the first of the birth pains, with more to come. Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from me and betray and hate each other. And many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people.  Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. And the Good News about the Kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, so that all nations will hear it; and then the end will come.....”

“... Now learn a lesson from the fig tree. When its branches bud and its leaves begin to sprout, you know that summer is near.  In the same way, when you see all these things, you can know his return is very near, right at the door. I tell you the truth, this generation will not pass from the scene until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear. However, no one knows the day or hour when these things will happen, not even the angels in heaven or the Son himself. Only the Father knows.”

In these key extracts from Matthew 24 Jesus says some profound things. Perhaps this paraphrase summarises it:

“Not even I know the precise date of my return, it is dependent on many factors and only the Father will know when all those are in place. But I do know this – they can be fulfilled within the lifetime of some you here now. Of course, the enemy will do all he can to delay it, he wants to maximise the horror of his reign – wars, the fear of war, ‘natural’ disasters and the like – and he wants to postpone his own defeat and judgment. In fact the symptoms of this battle are amongst the signs that the preconditions are being fulfilled. And you will recognise these signs just as surely as you recognise the signs of the changing seasons. Above all, when everyone has had the opportunity to choose between the kingdom of the enemy and the kingdom of God, then I will be free to return to judge how men have chosen. So be wholehearted in the battle and be empowered by the Spirit I will send; this generation can see the gospel preached to all nations and set the scene for my return.”

The gospels, the book of Acts, the earliest letters of the New Testament resound with this theme, with this urgency. As Paul puts it in Romans: there is a task to be done and we are the generation to accomplish it. The battle is fierce, we are being imprisoned, killed even, but nothing can separate us from God’s love, nothing can chain the gospel, let’s press on and claim the prize...

Yet here we are, two millennia later with the task still incomplete. Was Jesus unrealistic, over-optimistic, or has something gone badly wrong with the church that was commissioned to accomplish the task? Do we in fact, need to take responsibility?

Well, it turns out that far from being unrealistic, the task was extremely achievable. Let’s say that each of the 500 to whom Jesus gave his 'go' command led one other person to a place of faith every three years – and they subsequently ‘went’ and did the same, then the whole world would have been reached inside 60 years. Within the lifetime of some in his audience, exactly as he predicted. Of course there were special challenges, not all the world was discovered for example. But then our one person every three years was not the norm at the start; 3,000 on the day of Pentecost alone...

Pause for a minute to meditate this reality. Yes, 2000 additional years for people to hear, billions now rather than the millions then. But consider too how many of those billions live in despair, pain, horror and suffering. The enemy of our souls feeds on anguish, desolation, hurt, decay and death. He perpetuates it, stirs it, initiates it, fosters it. And through the inadequacy of the church he has had 2000 more years to do that with ever more people. Yes, there are purportedly more believers now than at any time previously, but there are six thousand million people who are not. Every one of them vulnerable to the ravages of the enemy. Yes, for the fleeting minority there is more comfort and material ‘good’ in their lives than ever before. But amongst even this elite, there is no more happiness than in previous ages. And for those outside that clique there is what there has always been. Oppression, suffering and death. Only now, multiplied by billions of individuals.

How must this add to the suffering of Christ on the cross? How must this break the heart of the Father, how must it grieve the Spirit? And who will be held responsible for this? Satan and his cohort of course. But who else? Who else has the light, who else tasted the Kingdom? Who has been redeemed from this hell, who has been empowered and gifted with everything that is needed to preach good news and be good news to all nations?

So often in the biblical narrative, unbelief, orthodoxy and insititutionalisation has strangled the life and urgency out of the movement of the Kingdom, turning it into an organisation with structures and a life of its own, sapping energy, momentum and effectiveness. Abraham called to go in haste, takes the whole entourage,resulting in civil war, battles with enemy cities, lies, the death of his relatives and above all, delay. By the time they reached the land, it was too late – it had been settled. When famine came, the people should have stayed in Egypt three years, instead comfort trapped them and they were there for 400. Once they were released they should have entered the land after an 11 day march. Unbelief and dysfunction led them to submit to their fears and they lost a further 40 years and a whole generation suffered.

No surprise then that what could have been accomplished inside 60 years has taken over 2000. Two millennia of sin, pain, death and destruction, fuelled and sustained by the enemy. This should appal us. Billions of people unnecessarily subject to the wrath and destructive power of Satan. Millennia of unnecessary freedom for him to cause death, disease, poverty, hatred, war, rape and every evil imaginable.

God graciously gave us the opportunity to co-create a kingdom of peace, love and joy from the wreckage of the fall. At immeasurable cost he won a victory over the enemy, placing him as it were on bail pending his full imprisonment. Christ gave us the unspeakable privilege of sharing the victory through the battle winning movement called church.

It may take a further 20 years before we have a cure for cancer, 50 before we tame fusion power. It may be 40 years before we put a man on Mars. Using the same assumptions as before, given today’s population and the number of Christians, it should take less than a decade to complete the task. How much longer will God stay his hand - not just against the ravages of the enemy, but against the inadequacies of his people?

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Not being frightened of him, but in awe of his great mercy and grace to respond wholeheartedly to him. Not in a 20 minute time of worship, but with our whole life, for our whole life. Nothing else comes close to an adequate response.

Lord have mercy on me. Lord have mercy on your people. Lord have mercy on a suffering world. Lord, graciously we plead, start with us.