Read Acts 7:54-60 & Matt. 6:19-21
54 When the members of the Sanhedrin heard this, they were furious and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him. Meanwhile, the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
In recent years, there has been marked protest against more traditional presentations of the gospel, caricatured as “going to heaven when you die.” Few Christians, I’m sure, have ever totally held this perspective; rather I imagine that all acknowledge the impact that the gospel has on the “now” as well as the “not yet.” There have, however, been legitimate concerns raised that within western modern culture the gospel has become individualised and privatised thus, as John Finney – for example – concludes, we need the Church and its gospel to be ‘broader and deeper;’[1] we need to be more kingdom minded.
As Jim Belcher observes, however, this renewed emphasis on the Kingdom of God has led traditional critics to re-brand this protest as a contemporary form of ‘social gospel’ liberalism. Soon, they argue, such kingdom thinkers ‘will drop the cross and atonement altogether, and the gospel will be reduced to social action, obedience, moral living.’[2]
Now, while properly understood, God’s kingdom can never be divorced from the cross, the resurrection or Christ’s return, whenever a balance is redressed there is always the risk of going too far the other way. Thus there is perhaps a danger that those trying hardest to – rightly – broaden our view of the gospel to include issues like social justice, creation care, politics and so on could end up unwittingly narrowing it again by neglecting those elements of the gospel which have traditionally been stressed. In other words, while we must affirm organizations like Christian Aid and their important redress: “We believe in life before death,” we must too – as Christians – not forget that our faith is ultimately based on hope; a hope that breaks into the “now” in amazing and essential ways but also a hope that won’t be fully realized until Christ comes again.
- In 2 minutes, how would you summarize the gospel? If possible, actually speak this out to someone and see what they think.
- There are “now” and “not yet” elements to the gospel in that it massively impacts the present but won’t be totally fulfilled until Christ comes again. What is your bias in this regard? i.e. Which of these are you most likely to focus on and why? How can we help one-another to maintain a healthy tension between the two?
If you have a bit longer :-)
Stephen is often referred to as the first Christian martry. Sadly, today, many Christians face the threat of death or imprisonment for their faith. Spend some time praying for them. For help with this see www.opendoorsuk.org.
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