Jesus, the Great Commission, and the Kingdom of God
Gordon Fee points out, the central theme of Jesus’ mission and message was “the good news of the kingdom of God,” to miss this term is to miss Jesus altogether. So what’s the relationship between the kingdom of God and the Great Commission in Matthew 28?
The kingdom of God is a time when God will establish his rule over all things. God chose Abraham in response to the cycle of sin and judgment in human history and made a covenant with him that through his seed, all the peoples of the world will be blessed. He promised David would rule over Israel and extend God’s rule to the world. When Israel repeatedly broke the covenant and failed in her calling to be a witness to the world, the prophets looked forward to a future day of salvation for a repentant and righteous remnant and judgment upon his enemies within Israel and among the nations. The whole creation would know his redemption, evil and oppression will be overturned, justice and righteousness would triumph and the nations would be drawn to Jerusalem and learn to walk in his ways.
Israel’s return from exile never lived up to these expectations and longing and hope grew that one day God would break into history and establish his rule in the hearts of his people through the pouring out of the Holy Spirit and the glory of God would fill the earth.
After 400 years of prophetic silence, John the Baptist came proclaiming, “Repent for the kingdom of God is near.” God is breaking into history to establish his rule. When Jesus came after John his message was the same, the kingdom of God is at hand. At his home synagogue in Nazareth he preached from Isaiah 61 about God’s “anointed” (Messiah) who would proclaim good news to the poor and the year of the Lord’s favour (Luke 4:16-30). These prophecies are being fulfilled in his ministry. The kingdom has come and God’s mercy is revealed as he heals the sick, casts out demons and welcomes sinners.
Jesus spoke of the kingdom as both present and future. The kingdom was in their midst and could be seen in Jesus’ message and ministry. Jesus came to destroy the works of the enemy and set free the oppressed. This meant good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, sight for the blind. Yet the kingdom had not come in its fullness, it remained hidden to those who would not see and incompressible to those who would not hear. The kingdom had not come as a political and military force to throw off the oppression and injustice of the Roman conquerors. The kingdom came as an insignificant mustard seed. The kingdom was present in the weakness and suffering of the Son of Man who came to serve, to seek and save the lost, to give his life as a ransom for many. The coming of the kingdom requires repentance and faith in the one who brings it.
The “poor” include widows and orphans, the helpless and defenseless who must rely on God and others to survive. As Jesus’ ministry demonstrates, the poor also include “sinners who know their poverty of spirit (Matt 5:3) and stand helpless before God in need of his mercy” (Fee). They are the prodigal who returns to his father’s house, the woman who kneels at Jesus’ feet and weeps, the tax-collector who cries out to God in the temple for mercy, a fisherman who knows he his a sinner, even a rich young man who walks away. Jesus has come to free all those captive to Satan’s tyranny.
The gospel is good news to the poor because God loves to feed the hungry and he wants his disciples to share the same concern. The gospel is good news to the sick because Jesus is moved with compassion in the face of human need, he heals the sick and sends his disciples out to do the same. The gospel is the good news of freedom to the oppressed because Jesus came to destroy the works of the Enemy and his disciples have the same authority.
Yet the gospel is more than bread for the hungry for Jesus is the Bread of Life. The gospel is more than healing for sick bodies because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. These are the signs of the kingdom, not the kingdom themselves. They point to the King who calls them to repent and believe in order to come under God’s loving rule.
Some people think the coming of the kingdom is all about the transformation of society, others that it’s signs and wonders. Yet Jesus denounced the towns in which most of his miracles were performed as worse than Sodom and facing God’s judgment. Why? They refused to repent (Matt 11:20-24). You can’t enter the kingdom without becoming a disciple of the King.
They must all repent, become like a children and totally depend on the Father’s goodness. They must lose their lives and find them again in Jesus. They must die to live. They must let go of greed and trust the Father to care and to provide. Forgiven, they must forgive. Loved, they must love.
He calls them to follow him and promises to teach them to fish for people—to rescue others as he has rescued them. Satan’s rule is broken in every form—sin, sickness, oppression, and injustice. Jesus has won the victory through his life and ministry, death and resurrection.
This is the gospel of the kingdom that must be preached throughout the world to every people group before the end comes when the kingdom will be established in its full glory and power.
We live between the times, the overlap of the ages, between the coming of the kingdom through Jesus and the fullness of God’s rule at the end of history. When Jesus returned to the Father in Acts 1 the disciples were left staring up into the sky wondering when he would return. They had to be reminded that while we wait for Christ’s return there is a job to be done, making disciples of the nations by going, baptising and teaching them to obey what Jesus has commanded.
Jesus gave the Great Commission, in its various forms in the Gospels and Acts, as the core missionary task before the coming of his kingdom in fullness at the end of the age. There’s nothing more important.
Series:
The Great Commission in the Gospels and Acts
The Great Commission in Acts
The Great Commission in Matthew
The Great Commission in John
The Great Commission in Luke
