Blowing the World to Kingdom Come
Acts 3
Introduction
At some point in 2019, just a few people contracted a virus that we now call COVID-19. At the time it probably looked like a small thing. I don’t even know how sick those first people got. I am sure that if you could go back and explain to them all that has happened around the world since, they would be shocked.
Think about how much our life has changed, not just in this city but around the world. When it first hit, many of us thought it was just a matter of washing our hands and not hand shaking. But now everything has changed. Everything from how we do groceries to how we do church is different. Did we ever think that we would not be able to sing in church or worse, not be able to have a potluck? Then there are all the travel restrictions and even if we get out of the country, there is two weeks of isolation. School for elementary and high school plus college and university looks completely different. There is so much that has changed for the entire world and just because of a small little virus. I’m not suggestion that there has been an overreaction, I am only saying that there have been far reaching changes over a very short period and it began with something that may not have looked that serious at the start.
Now why am I bringing this up? It reflects our experience but what does it have to do with the Bible. Some have tried to explain the pandemic using the Bible but I’m going to try and explain the Bible with the pandemic. What is the central message of Jesus? Many of us might say the cross and although Jesus talked about the cross, the focus of his preaching and his actions was on the kingdom of God. The kingdom is not just heaven, although it includes heaven. The kingdom is not just the return of Jesus, although it includes the return of Jesus. The kingdom of God is the reign of God, it is God’s invasion of the kingdom of this world and the slow spread of God’s rule. That’s what Jesus did and while the death and resurrection of Jesus were major parts of the kingdom, the spreading of the kingdom did not end with the return of Jesus to heaven.
The idea is that kingdom would spread across the world, from one person to another, transforming everything that it comes in contact with. Kind of like the pandemic but in a much more positive way. Both events began small and unassuming and become something major. What we are going to look at is how the church continues the work of the kingdom, both in Acts and today.
Kingdom in Acts
In the previous chapters of Acts, we have Jesus ascending into heaven and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Peter preaches his Pentecost sermon and the church is born. But now what? What is the connection between what Jesus did and what the church is about to do?
We see Peter and John, two of the closest followers of Jesus, on their way to the Temple to pray. Back then, as today, poor people would position themselves in places of high traffic in order to beg for money. This was a great place for this particular man, far greater than he could have imagines.
We are told that this man was lame from birth. Many of the people who relied on begging were people with disabilities. There was no government funding or programs to help people with disabilities. Either their families took care of them or they relied on the generosity of random strangers.
The man asked Peter and John for money. He didn’t get that, but he did get something else. Peter healed him in the name of Jesus. This man who had never walked before was now walking. This was incredible! But in our astonishment, we need to reflect on why the man was healed. Was it because God wants every person with a disability to be healed? And does this mean that the lesson for us is to heal every person with a disability that we encounter?
This healing was a very important event that had a very specific meaning. Healings were a significant part of Jesus’ ministry. Again, why did he do that? If was healings for the sake of healings, why did all of those, even those he raised from the dead, get sick and die again at some point in their life? The healings were signs that God’s kingdom was arriving. As a student of military history, I see it like the bombardment before an attack. These dramatic healings were meant to show that God was working through Jesus in power, causing the kingdom to come, on earth as it is in heaven.
The healing of this lame man was a sign that the same God who worked through Jesus was working through the followers of Jesus. Notice that the man was healed in Jesus’ name. That doesn’t mean that they tagged on “in Jesus’ name” to the end of their prayer. This healing was a continuation of the ministry of Jesus through the church. The point was not that a man who couldn’t walk now could walk, the point was the kingdom was coming.
How do we know this? Look at the rest of the story. Peter preaches the kingdom without ever using that word. His message is that the people that witnessed this miracle need to respond by submitting to God’s rule, they need to enter the kingdom. And then he wraps it up with a reminder that Jesus is returning. That is the fulfillment of the kingdom. Right now the kingdom is coming and then the kingdom will have come. It is all about the kingdom.
Kingdom Now
What we have seen is that there is continuity between the ministry of Jesus in the Gospels and the ministry of the church in Acts. There is also continuity between the ministry of the church in Acts and the ministry of the church now. The theme that ties it all together is the kingdom of God. Our job is to work to spread the kingdom in our congregational and individual activity.
So what does that look like? Let’s go back and see what happened with Peter and John and the beggar. They encountered a poor man born lame and they did what God led them to do.
How would we respond? Some Christians would read the passage and insist that we should do the same thing and get that man healed. I do believe that God still heals. But I also have been doing a lot of research into the experience of people with disabilities. I have heard countless stories of awkward experiences of well-meaning Christians trying to heal people with disabilities that don’t want to be healed. Many people with disabilities are content with their physical state and it is not our job to reject them as broken. Even Jesus didn’t always assume that person with a disability wanted to be healed.
So what do we do? Our goal is the same as Peter and John, not to get the man on his feet but to spread the kingdom. What will it look for God’s will to be done, which is really the essence of the kingdom? It may be befriending the person. It may be inviting them into your home for a meal. It may be listening to their joys and their pains. It may be just being a Christian presence in their lives. There is no one size fits all approach. It requires sensitivity to God’s leading as to what God’s will is. What we need to ask is how the kingdom of God can flow into this situation.
We then take that question and apply it to every other area. We live in a world that is struggling through a pandemic. It is causing both fear and division. How can we as a congregation and as individual followers of Jesus blow the world to kingdom come?
Conclusion
People were watching those first Christians. Jesus was gone. Would this mean that the whole movement would fall apart? Would the disciples go back to their old lives and leave Jesus as just a footnote in their life story? Peter and John demonstrated that it was business as usual. Jesus was bringing the kingdom of God to earth and so were they.
People are watching us. This pandemic has hit the world hard and not just in total lives lost. What is the church going to do? Will the church fall apart? Will the church just focus on self-survival, leaving the rest of the world on its own?
We are on the same mission as Peter and John who were on the same mission as Jesus. Kingdom come. The COVID-19 virus infiltrated our world and changed everything. The kingdom of God is far more powerful than a virus and it can spread through us to the rest of the world, transforming everything we come into contact. Will we be kingdom builders?
