Parting Words

The final instructions of someone who is leaving and placing valuable things into the hands of others are worth paying attention to. They matter. They usually contain the things we most need to remember. Parents do this when leaving their kids home alone. We do it when asking someone to look after our house while we’re away. We make sure they know what matters most.

The beginning of Acts records this kind of moment, but on a much bigger scale.

The disciples had just lived through the most tumultuous days imaginable—moving from the horror and grief of Jesus’ crucifixion to the wonder and joy of seeing Him alive again. Now Jesus was preparing to leave them, return to His Father, and give them His Spirit.

So what did Jesus talk about in these final days?

After His suffering, He presented himself to them and gave many convincing proofs that He was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the Kingdom of God. ~ Acts 1:3

Luke highlights two things. First, Jesus continued to address their doubts, giving them “many convincing proofs” that He was alive. Second, He spoke to them about the Kingdom of God (Acts 1:3).

We can relate to both.

We too need God to gently and continually deal with our doubts, fears, and struggles to reconcile faith with what we see happening around us. We need the Holy Spirit to do this heart work within us. And one of the ways God does this is by lifting our eyes beyond our immediate circumstances to see the much bigger reality of His Kingdom.

It is significant that Jesus began His public ministry proclaiming the Kingdom of God (Matthew 4:23; Mark 1:14–15; Luke 4:43–44), and He ended His earthly ministry doing the same.

The disciples, however, were still trying to understand what this kingdom would look like. Their vision remained fairly small: “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” ~ Acts 1:6.

Lifting Our Eyes

Jesus lifted their eyes to something much bigger:

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” ~ Acts 1:8

The Kingdom was bigger than they imagined, and Jesus was inviting them to see it and live into it.

We need our eyes lifted as well.

“The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” Jesus announced at the beginning of His ministry (Mark 1:15). Later, when asked when the Kingdom would come, Jesus responded that the Kingdom of God was already “in your midst” (Luke 17:21).

Living in the ‘Now and Not Yet’

This is part of the beautiful mystery of God’s Kingdom. It is a long-awaited promise. It is a present reality among us. And it is a future reality that we will one day experience in all its fullness.

The Kingdom is evident wherever Jesus is King. But the Kingdom is still present and God is still on the throne even if people do not bow down - but do we see it?  We can experience more of this ‘now and not yet’ Kingdom as we submit our lives to Him, live as churches who embody His reign and participate in His Kingdom mission.

The New Testament describes God’s people as expanding beyond the boundaries of Israel to include Jew and Gentile together in one new family. Paul gives us a remarkable vision of this in Ephesians. The Church is not an afterthought in God’s mission. It is central to God’s purposes in the world—a people reconciled to God and one another, displaying the wisdom, grace, holiness, justice, peace, and love of King Jesus.

Of course, we know the ‘now and not yet’ Church does this imperfectly.

It’s easy to see how the Church we experience now is not yet in its fullness. We see the brokenness and gaps in leadership, relationships, holiness, justice, peace, and love. Yet Scripture also gives us a picture of what God’s people will one day become when His Kingdom comes in its fullness (Revelation 21:9–22:5). Until that day, we are called to be faithful, united by the Spirit, being His witnesses - to make Christ visible to the world.

So we live in this tension of the now and the not yet.

We proclaim a kingdom that has already come near in Jesus and is still coming in its fullness. We announce Jesus as King while learning ourselves what it means to surrender more fully to His reign. We tell the Good News while also living as a people whose life together offers an alternative to the stories and kingdoms of our world.

And we do this in the power of the Holy Spirit.

This is our calling as well.

Proclaiming Jesus and His Kingdom

Proclaiming Jesus and His Kingdom is one of our core values, but it is much more than a statement on a page. It is an invitation to lift our eyes. To see where King Jesus is already at work. To surrender ourselves again to His reign. To participate in what the Spirit is doing. And to bear witness—in our words, our lives, our churches, and our relationships—to the good news that Jesus is King.

As you read and pray through the stories and articles that follow, my prayer is that the Spirit would lift our eyes and enlarge our vision—that we would see more clearly what God is doing among us and around the world, and that we would faithfully join Him in proclaiming Jesus and His Kingdom.