2. Living for Another Kingdom
chapter two
Living for Another Kingdom
In South Asia a group of tribal people numbers well over 80,000. Traditionally the members of that tribe are animists, making sacrifices, worshiping nature and their ancestors. As far as anyone knew, a church had never been established among these people. They lived in spiritual darkness—until a man named Anil heard a Gospel radio broadcast.
Anil had been sent out by the tribe as a boy to get an education. Now, as a young husband and father, he was listening to his radio one day when he heard a name he had never heard before: Jesus Christ. The voice went on to say that Jesus was God who became a Man and died for sinners to save them.
Anil was curious and decided to send a letter to the address given at the end of the program.
“I heard on the radio about Jesus Christ being God,” he wrote. “Can you send me a book about your God?”
A few weeks later a New Testament arrived for Anil, which he started reading every day. As he read, he grew more and more astounded. How is it that this took place in history, yet we know nothing about it? he asked himself.
Since Anil was young and had no authority in the community, he went to speak to the elders.
“I’ve received this book,” he told them. “It tells about a God named Jesus Christ.”
He told them what he had been reading and submitted the New Testament to them. The elders were interested. They decided Anil should come every day and read this book to them. He began in Matthew with the genealogy of Jesus but became so confused that he skipped to Matthew 5 and started there.
Every day Anil met with the elders and together they read a few pages out of the New Testament. Within six months the elders were grasping a new concept: Here was a loving God who had died for them but now was dead no longer. This God asked them to live for Him—but in return, He said He would live through them.
The Holy Spirit worked in their hearts one by one, drawing them to Himself. The people of this tribe began to pray to Jesus. They had never heard of the Four Spiritual Laws but were coming to a knowledge of the Lord Jesus and gaining a relationship with Him. Within a year about 200 people had come to faith in Christ. And that number just continued to grow.
Then the elders gave Anil an important mission.
“When you were a boy,” they told him, “we sent you out to learn to read and write, to become educated. You are the hope and future of our tribe. Now, Anil, you must go someplace where you can learn more about this God, and then return and tell us.”
Anil had heard about a ministry that trains young people, so he wrote them, requesting to be part of their training program. He never mentioned that he was married and had a child. He longed for the training and wanted nothing to interfere with it. Nor did he tell them about the work of God among his tribe.
Soon a letter arrived telling Anil he was accepted for their year-long training program and could come right away.
During his year with the team, Anil soaked up as much as he possibly could. But he kept his identity a secret until one night during a prayer meeting, when he began to pour out his heart to the Lord for his people. The leaders looked at one another curiously. Was it possible Anil was part of that unreached tribe?
Afterward they asked him. Then Anil astounded them with a description of the great move of God among his people. They went to see for themselves and found a radiant, born-again group of Christ followers in that remote region.
Today there is a thriving, growing church there. Hundreds are coming to Christ and declaring their faith publicly. Dozens of young people from the tribe are ready to go into full-time ministry to serve the Lord. The entire community has been transformed by the Word of God.
“Come, Follow Me”
Anil and his fellow tribal believers are examples of Christians who have lifted their eyes, seen the fields and are devoting their lives to the harvest. (We will see another contemporary example in chapter 4.) The Holy Spirit touches the hearts of people who commit their lives to Him wholly; who follow Jesus simply because He said, “Follow Me”; and who do whatever He asks them to do. It is as simple as that.
We see the same response from the disciples Jesus called:
As Jesus walked beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.” At once they left their nets and followed him.
When he had gone a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John in a boat, preparing their nets. Without delay he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men and followed him.
Mark 1:16–20
These men dropped everything they were doing and followed Jesus. I imagine that Zebedee, James and John’s father, watched in consternation as his sons got up from their nets and followed Jesus. Perhaps he called after them. Perhaps he thought they had lost their senses.
But Jesus was saying, “You could spend the rest of your lives catching fish. But if you come and follow Me, I will make you fishers of men.”
Jesus still issues that call to those who claim to be His followers.
Peter states, “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:21). Jesus told His disciples, “A new command I give you: Love one another. ... All men will know that you are my disciples if you love one another” (John 13:34–35).
When we read straight through the four Gospels, we can see clearly how Jesus lived His life. It is summed up in this statement: “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).
“My purpose is not for Myself,” Jesus was saying, “so that everyone can gather around and take good care of Me. No, I have come as the poorest of the poor. I have come to suffer and die for others.”
I remember a story I heard once about William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army. At the time he was an old, weak man. He was expected to speak at a huge convention, but because of his physical condition he was unable at the last minute to go. Instead he sent a telegram.
Thousands gathered at the convention, eager to hear this great man of God speak. That night, at the appointed moment, someone came to the platform with the sealed telegram and explained that General Booth was unable to be there, but that he had sent a message to be read. As he opened the seal, the crowd grew hushed in expectancy.
There was only one word in the telegram: “Others.”
What was Booth saying to them? “Remember, while you hold this great convention and enjoy the food, fellowship and laughter—remember, my message is still unchanged: Others.”
If we are followers of Jesus, if we are to hear the call of God, this mindset must govern all of our thinking. We must, like Jesus, be others-centered.
Learning from His Life—and Death
Jesus did not train His disciples in a classroom; He taught them through example. He lived His life before them and then willingly laid it down. No wonder that, after the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit, they remembered Jesus’ words to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. And every one of them laid down his life for preaching the Gospel.
At one time I thought John was the only disciple who was not martyred. Later I learned that he was beheaded. Another disciple, Thomas, journeyed to India in ad 52, where he preached and laid down his life for Jesus. One of the seven churches he planted is located about three miles from where I was born and reared.
Doesn’t it seem strange that these men who walked and lived with Jesus for three years, men who saw miracles almost beyond belief and who must have had great faith, were not supernaturally translated to heaven, but died criminals’ deaths? How could they have traveled to places and done things they knew would put their very lives at risk?
Because Jesus was their example. Jesus was never the kind of Master who told them, “Do what I say, don’t do what I do.” No, He said, “Come, follow Me.”
Jesus also said, “I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
I remember studying the book of Acts in Bible college. As we went through it, I thought it was a fascinating piece of history. But it is much more than history. The book of Acts is a living, open-ended book whose story continues even today in the lives of committed believers. It is a book filled with the stories of people who were absolutely sold out, who had only one thing on their minds: Jesus died, He rose again, He is our Lord, He is coming back and we must tell our generation!
These believers yielded their lives unselfishly to communicate this message. When they were misunderstood, mistreated, persecuted, stoned and beaten up, they did not go around mourning their losses and licking their wounds. They went right back out and preached the Gospel—and not just the apostles, but the believers, the everyday, “normal” people like you and me.
When we read about Jesus’ life and are challenged to follow in His footsteps, we feel overwhelmed. I can’t help it, we rationalize. I’m only a human being. Jesus is God. How can I expect to keep up with Him? And we excuse ourselves from total commitment.
Then we come to Paul. It is not easy to write Paul off because he was just as human as we are. “I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature,” he wrote in Romans 7:18. He considered himself an earthen vessel, a jar of clay (see 2 Corinthians 4:7).
Paul recognized that in his own strength he started from zero. He confessed his weaknesses and inadequacies continually. This is a man who argued with Barnabas, his co-worker. Acts 15:39 tells us that “they had such a sharp disagreement that they parted company.” But for this normal human being named Paul, following Jesus was not a nine-to-five job, nor did it have a finishing point. This was everyday life for him.
Let’s look at an incident that took place in Paul’s life when he came to Thessalonica:
The Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “ These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here. ...”
Acts 17:5–6
This incident was just one of many for Paul, an everyday occurrence in his Christian walk. He was accused by the crowd of, in the words of the King James Version, having “turned the world upside down.” But to him this was simply part of following Jesus.
There was no dichotomy in Paul’s life or in the lives of the early believers. Their lives were not compartmentalized into “spiritual” and “secular” activities. Their whole existence was a solid commitment, a life given for the Lord and His kingdom.
We Know Too Much
Unfortunately most modern-day Christians seem satisfied with only knowing what these New Testament believers did. We neglect to follow the example they provide.
The curse on our lives as modern Christians is that we have carefully divided the spiritual from the secular parts of our lives. On certain days we feel holy and wonderful. Our emotions are elevated and we feel ready to face any trial that may come. We are going to conquer the world for the Lord! On other days, back on the job and in the world, we say to ourselves, How can I do all that for the Lord? I’m doing the best I can.
Somehow we have become comfortable with living a divided life. When we read about the uproar over Paul in Thessalonica, we have a difficult time relating to the treatment the believers received.
But for those New Testament believers, normal, everyday living for Jesus brought on persecution. These people lived in a community and worked faithfully at their jobs every day. Nothing about them stood out, except the fact that they took the words of Jesus seriously and they followed Him.
The reason these believers lived was not to sew tents, teach school or construct buildings. These activities were simply their means of making a living. But their lives did not stop when no one bought tents anymore, when they retired or when they were too exhausted to lay another brick. While these believers lived on earth, their occupations were temporal, insignificant compared to what they saw as their primary responsibility. They lived for another kingdom.
It is as if the first-century believers were living in the midst of a whirlwind. Wherever they went they caused some kind of commotion or turmoil or trouble—simply because they lived what they believed.
We do not read passages like this in the book of Acts:
And they gathered together for the committee meeting, 10 people with long faces drinking black coffee with no sugar because they all were watching their diets.
And one spoke up, saying, “Brothers and sisters, God is telling us we should do such-and-such.”
Yet another responded, “I’m not sure. We should think about it some more. We’re so much in debt right now, maybe we should vote on it.”
So it goes in the lives of countless churches today. We are so intent on finding the hidden meanings behind the mandates in the New Testament that we forget to look at the mandates themselves. We are so organized that we make it difficult for the Holy Spirit to direct and use us to change the world around us.
We find no committee meetings in the book of Acts. We find long hours of prayer, fasting and waiting on God to move. The believers of Acts were common people like us, but wherever they went, things happened. As these men and women moved out into the marketplace, into their neighborhoods and workplaces, they turned their communities upside-down by their very presence. They were world-changers, spiritual revolutionaries who had heard the call of God.
Look at Jesus’ life. He was a revolutionary, too. Wherever He went, nothing stayed the same. He saw the darkness, the condition of the lost, and it drove His life.
This is how the Lord wants us to live as well—as world changers who cannot help but revolutionize the world around us because of what we hear and see.
The call of Christ rings in our ears: “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Jesus is not playing games with us. And hell is no joke; hell is real. I tell you, if we examine ourselves and discover that we really do not believe what we claim to believe, we might as well get out of this business. But if we do believe what we say we believe, let’s be different. We cannot live for ourselves anymore; we have been given too much knowledge for that. And from those to whom much is given, much will be required (see Luke 12:48).
Let’s think carefully and plan deliberately to live our lives in such a way that they will make a difference.
The question is, how do we do that? How do we live our lives as world revolutionaries?