On September 12, 2023, people the world over watched transfixed as a formally-bedecked British official stood before the King’s Guards and the watching public and heralded the following decree:
Whereas it has pleased Almighty God to call to His Mercy our late Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth the Second of Blessed and Glorious memory, by whose Decease the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is solely and rightfully come to The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George:
We, therefore, the Lords Spiritual and Temporal of this Realm and Members of the House of Commons, together with other members of Her late Majesty’s Privy Council and representatives of the Realms and Territories, Aldermen, and Citizens of London, and others, do now hereby with one voice and Consent of Tongue and Heart publish and proclaim that The Prince Charles Philip Arthur George is now, by the Death of our late Sovereign of Happy Memory, become our only lawful and rightful Liege Lord Charles the Third, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of his other Realms and Territories, King, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, to whom we do acknowledge all Faith and Obedience with humble Affection; beseeching God by whom Kings and Queens do reign to bless His Majesty with long and happy Years to reign over us.
Given at St James’s Palace this tenth day of September in the year of Our Lord two thousand and twenty-two.
GOD SAVE THE KING[1]
It was a rare moment for the world to see and one steeped in history and pageantry. Here, the King was announced and proclaimed and officially recognized, to the acclaim of the people who shouted back: “GOD SAVE THE KING!”
There is a word for this decree: evangelism. Evangelism means the heralding of good news, of the gospel.
I would like to propose that the church should do and should see itself as doing exactly what the herald of that decree did: Announcing the King! That is evangelism. That is mission. That is witness. And the absence of a healthy doctrine of the Kingdom of God from evangelical church life has meant that our witness is stunted in this regard.
We are royal heralds.
We are King proclaimers!
This is our duty.
This is our privilege.
The church is to proclaim the King and the Kingdom.
We begin with the fact of the matter: The church is to proclaim the King and His Kingdom. How do we know this?
We know this, first, because the prophets of old proclaimed the coming of the King and the Kingdom! In Acts 28, Paul is in Rome. Luke writes this about him:
23 When they had appointed a day for him, they came to him at his lodging in greater numbers. From morning till evening he expounded to them, testifying to the kingdom of God and trying to convince them about Jesus both from the Law of Moses and from the Prophets.
Paul testified “to the kingdom of God” and sought to convince his listeners that the law and the prophets were doing the same: pointing to Jesus! The church, then, joins with the choir of witnesses the world over and throughout time to proclaim Jesus and His Kingdom! This was the message of old. This is our message now: The King and His Kingdom have come and are coming!
Secondly, this is what Jesus Himself did! In Matthew 4, we find Jesus heralding the Kingdom.
23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people.
Jesus proclaims “the gospel of the kingdom.” This tells us two things. First, it tells us that our witness to the gospel is not to be tepid. It is proclaimed! It is heralded! Secondly, it tells us that there is no whole gospel that is devoid of the Kingdom. To proclaim the gospel is necessarily to proclaim the King and His Kingdom come and coming!
We know that the church is to proclaim the Kingdom, thirdly, because, in Matthew 24, proclaiming the Kingdom is what Jesus says we are to be about!
14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
Not only is the proclamation of the gospel of the Kingdom what we are to busy ourselves with, it is also what the world needs! It is to “be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations.” And then Jesus links this worldwide proclamation of the Kingdom to His return: “and then the end will come.”
This introduces a note of intense urgency! “Then the end will come!”
Are we proclaiming the gospel of King Jesus as if it is necessary for His return to occur? Does our witness reveal that we think that to be the case? That it must be proclaimed before He comes?
Fourthly, we see in the witness of Paul, in Acts 19, that the apostles understood their continuation of the ministry of Jesus to consist in the proclamation of the Kingdom to the world. Here is what we read of Paul in Ephesus.
8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God.
Notice the progression:
- Paul went to the world (i.e., here, to the Jews in their synagogues).
- Paul took his time and engaged on a deep level (i.e., “for three months”).
- Paul’s witness was not sheepish or weak (i.e., “spoke boldly”).
- Paul was well-informed and strategic in his engagement (i.e., “reasoning and persuading”).
- What Paul proclaimed was a gospel of the King and His Kingdom (i.e., “about the kingdom of God.”).
Let us be clear, church: Our calling is to herald our King! Our calling is to announce the Kingdom that has come in Jesus! Our calling is to be bold and passionate in our proclamation!
Kingdom proclamation will change much that ails us.
Tragically, a healthy and robust doctrine of the Kingdom of God is missing from many churches. Evangelism has been reduced largely to an offer a personal, private encounter with a personal, private deity. But how does the doctrine of the Kingdom of God change our approach to evangelism?
Kingdom proclamation makes the gospel first and foremost about Jesus.
Proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom means, first and foremost, proclaiming the gospel of Jesus. You cannot proclaim one without proclaiming the other.
In Acts 8, in the preaching of Philip, we find that preaching the Kingdom means preaching the King. Listen:
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.
Without Kingdom theology, evangelism becomes largely about the one being (hopefully) saved. But Kingdom theology makes it first about Jesus, the Savior!
We find the same happening in Acts 28, in Paul’s witness-bearing while in Rome.
30 He lived there two whole years at his own expense, and welcomed all who came to him, 31 proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.
Do you see? There is no Kingdom proclamation without King proclamation! To proclaim the Kingdom is to proclaim Jesus! Kingdom theology keeps King Jesus central. And it ensures that Jesus is not reduced to an insurance salesman. No, He remains King and God and Lord of all!
Kingdom proclamation de-individualizes the good news.
Furthermore, Kingdom proclamation hits out against a hyper-individualistic understanding of the gospel. It does this by reminding the one being witnessed to and the one witnessing that they are being invited not into a private ecstatic religious experience but rather into a Kingdom of fellow citizens!
Without an understanding of the Kingdom, it sounds like we are inviting people into some wild, weird, personal, private, religious trip. But with the Kingdom, we see that we are inviting them to become, through Jesus, part of a Kingdom, that is, part of a people!
Peter, in 1 Peter 2, writes:
9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Do you see? Notice the corporate, communal, non-isolated language of Peter’s description of who the church is in Christ:
- a chosen race;
- a royal priesthood;
- a holy nation;
- a people.
We become part of something bigger than ourselves when we trust in Jesus! It is not merely that we get to go to heaven, though, thank God, that is part of it.
Notice the difference between these two approaches:
- Approach #1: “Accept Jesus and you can go to heaven when you die.”
- Approach #2: “If you will bow your heart and life to King Jesus, and pledge to follow Him, you will become a citizen of His Kingdom with all others who have done the same and, together, have the privilege of promoting and proclaiming Him to the world.”
Kingdom theology, yes, pronounces that you can be saved, but it does not make it only about you! It pronounces that you are becoming part of a Kingdom people who have a Kingdom calling to promote King Jesus!
Kingdom proclamation reduces fear by eclipsing it with the beauty and glory of our King.
When you make evangelism about heralding our King, then the fear of witnessing gives way before His glory and beauty! Evangelism becomes less about an awkward encounter than about awesome King! It becomes less about “What will I say?” than about “How can I not say it?”
Kingdom proclamation compels us to speak because we want people to know about our King! His fame is more important than our hesitation. His name is greater than our awkwardness. His throne is more important than our nervousness.
When you have a King as awesome as Jesus, how can you remain silent?!
Many years ago, I read the following, purportedly written by a young lady to a local pastor.
Pastor,
Last Sunday I attended your church, and I heard you preach. In your sermon you said that all men have sinned and rebelled against God. Because of their rebellion and disobedience they all face eternal damnation and separation from God.
But then you also said God loved men and sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to redeem men from their sins and that all those who believe in him would go to heaven and live with God eternally.
My parents recently died in rapid succession. I know they did not believe in Jesus Christ, whom you call the Savior of the world. If what you preach is true, they are damned.
You compel me to believe that either the message is untrue, or that you yourself don’t believe this message, or that you don’t care. We live only three blocks from your church and no one ever told us. You hypocrites!
Signed: ___________________________
How did that pastor and that church manage to fail that girl?
What that girl and her family needed was to know that the King has arrived! That Jesus is here! That Jesus is worthy of her trust and her faith and her repentance! That our King is mighty to save!
We are silent not because we lack courage but because we lack the kind of awe that King Jesus should inspire in our lives. And why do we lack this awe? Because we have not focused sufficiently on the Kingdom and the King. We have focused, instead, overly-much on ourselves.
Let us remedy this, church. Let us remain silent no longer.
The King has come! Blow the trumpets! Read the decree! King Jesus is here, and His arms are open to all who will come to Him!
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proclamation_of_accession_of_Charles_III
This message in the series is gonna take a lot more time of prayer and study than many of the others but the “gospel of the Kingdom” was missing entirely from my world as apparently it was in yours as well even that late in the closing days of last century. Those most “in tune” with this message way back between WW1 & WW2 were a tiny minority is seems but they surely were vocal and wrote much about the
drift away from the gospel a 100 years ago. As you said, a lot of talk about heaven and hell and money and morals but not much about “the Kingdom” outside of threads in hymns and songs we sang almost because that is what the grand parents did so tradition has a place for sure but some of us got “stuck in” them
Thank you again for being so plainly spoken in a time when we all need just that.
God bless you & CBCNLR as you got out this year esp. with the outreach to the poor which IS becoming overwhelming here and in many rural areas; more time praying corporately surely will be essential now going forward. 🙂
Bless you brother.