Where is the world going? Many people are troubled about where everything is heading. We as children of its Creator and Lord need not be! Nonetheless, we do need a sense of the overall sweep of God’s purposes for this world, to help us grasp where we fit in. This is today’s theme.
Scripture gives us an essential, inspiring picture, embodying the past, the present, and our future as believers; our `blessed hope` (Titus 2:13), which, as we grasp hold of it, will be an `anchor` for our souls (Heb 6:19)…..! And last time we explored how Christ has equipped each of us with unique giftings, calling us to help fulfil his adventurous, globally-wide purposes. But how do I find my place in that?
God’s plan for the world: human history isn’t going nowhere. Under God it had a beginning, and it will have an end. Human history as we know it began when the first humans decided they wanted to run their world their way – to be independent, to `be like God` running their world themselves (Gen 3:5). It doesn’t work now, and it didn’t work then. Genesis 3>6 tell us how that disastrous, sinful rejection of the central God-people relationship meant we lost the power to make our other relationships work. It led to breakdown in the man-woman and human-nature relationships; and thence to ever-increasing violence; and eventually to environmental catastrophe in the days of Noah.
But tragically, we haven’t learned the lesson. Generation after generation, most of us have insisted on running our lives our own way, not letting God be our King. So we’re separated from God. And it still doesn’t work at all. The world’s in a dire mess as a result, and is fast becoming more so.
But the great thing is this: God is colossally loving, and in his grace he doesn’t give up on this world. He allows us our freedom to reject him. But as soon as the Genesis catastrophe happens, He promises someone will be born who will sort out all the evil (3:15). He promised Abraham too that `through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed` (22:18).
For centuries, therefore, throughout the old testament era, Israel waited. And finally the promised offspring came, Jesus: and at the Cross He dealt triumphantly with the consequences of our rebellion, paid for our sins, removed the barrier between us and the blessing and goodness of God. As each of us puts our faith in what he did on the cross and hands over control of our lives to him, he puts his Holy Spirit in us.
And since Pentecost, the vital next phase of God’s plan for this world has been happening, that we call world mission. By his Spirit he’s been bringing more and more people into his Church and his `kingdom`, a whole alternative way of doing things lived under his leadership and by his guidance, a way that’s fruitful. We’ve seen in recent posts how foundationally the way of following Jesus reshapes each part of our lives. As it does so it transforms them into something deeply worthwhile – and starts to reshape our surroundings too.
The heart of this spread is our sharing of the gospel of salvation, and spreading God’s Word worldwide (Matt 28:18-20, Acts 6:7, 12:24). This is the most fruitful thing we can do; not just because its results are eternal, but also because it’s the remedy for the root causes of our other problems; the key remedy for the sins of bribery and corruption for example. And the Church’s mission, doing what God’s sent us to do, includes using everything God gives us to repair the disastrous results of our race’s rebellion and bring God’s goodness in across the world: which includes spreading medical care that confronts disease, spreading education (literacy especially), spreading justice, unselfish stewarding of the environment in this time of disastrous climate change, and much besides.
It’s true, of course, that we can’t put this world entirely right without Christ’s direct intervention when he returns. So when will that happen? We don’t know (Matt 24:36). The pressures of global warming, increasing pollution and much more may well imply that things cannot go on as they are, and the climax may not be far away. Jesus said that the gospel `will be preached to all nations` [our job!], `and then the end will come` (Matt 24:14); and with the staggering growth of God’s church all round the world in the last hundred years, it’s hard to see this needing more than another century, very probably much less. So quite possibly either we or our children’s generation need to be prepared to live faithfully through the climax of history Revelation describes. One thing we can be sure of: Jesus said that when he comes back, it will be when we aren’t expecting it (Matt 2444); we now must be prepared for this – as he said, `Be always on the watch… like people waiting for their Master to return!` (Luke 21:36, 12:36). We should live our whole lives for his mission, conscious he may come back for us at any moment! And meanwhile we’re called to use our time and talents in a way that will please him when we see him face to face, bringing as much of heaven’s way of doing things on earth as possible; by how we live, by what we’ll be doing this coming week and coming years, by how we pray, by how we use the money and gifts God has entrusted to us. We often feel that what we do as Christians will never put this broken world entirely right. And this is true; the Bible never promises us that. But this doesn’t matter. Our motive for the difference we want to make is simply love. With God within us we really can make huge differences in this hurting world, and if we’re growing like Jesus we must use everything we are and have, just as he did, for that. All this is part of our adventurous calling to bring as much as possible of God’s goodness on earth.
Yet still far too many people reject God’s reign, and the massive damage continues. It’s not out of God’s control, however. The time will come when God finally says `Stop!`. And as we’ve said, this may well be soon. Jesus will come back, not to be born in a manger and crucified this time, but as earth’s King to finally put things right. AMEN!
And yes, we can’t put the world entirely right without Christ’s direct intervention. There is no promise that things will get totally better before then (Matt 24:6-8). Indeed, the Bible says that before Jesus finally intervenes there will be a brief period in which humankind learns the full horrendous consequences of what it means to live independently from God. This is one of the things Revelation’s about, and we need to take it seriously. It’s bad, as the full consequences of human independence are finally revealed; God’s plan allows for a brief time when we see the full meaning of having rejected his rule – extremes of war, famine, natural disaster, disease, totalitarian dictatorship, plus persecution of anyone who follows Jesus.
There’s lots about this that isn’t clear. Many Christians believe the Bible is saying we believers will never pass through this time, but God will very unexpectedly and suddenly take his people out beforehand, to be with himself; and only then, with all the true Christian input (the preservative `salt of the earth`) removed from each key area of society, will all hell briefly break out in this world. (The theological term for this deliverance is the `rapture`, as in 1 Thess 4:16-18, if you’ve ever wondered what that means.) Possibly; we don’t know for sure, and godly people have differing views. It’s certainly vital to live aware that Christ may come back at any minute to take us to himself and start the climax of history. But it’s also vital to be prepared that being Christians may involve us too in this final climax, and in serious persecution; that’s already happened in many other countries, and it may happen in the future here. (For more about these possible futures please see https://petelowmanresources.com/our-future2-whats-this-about-the-rapture/ .)
But then!- King Christ returns, and at last everything is put right! (`Your kingdom come`, he called us to pray, `in earth as it is in heaven`; now it totally does!) How then will God’s plan conclude? I’m not getting here into the debated question of whether Christ reigns gloriously on earth for a thousand wonderful years, making it paradise (see Rev 20:1-6, Isaiah 11:3-9; and https://petelowmanresources.com/our-future4-what-happens-after-jesus-returns-whats-this-about-the-millennium/ ); but whatever we believe about that (and again, godly believers differ), Revelation 21 clearly depicts history’s final culmination after this old broken world has passed away (cf Matt 24:35, 2 Peter 3:10-13, Rev 20:11, 21:1). God now brings into being a wonderful `new heaven and new earth`, radically glorious no doubt in all sorts of unimaginable ways, where there will never again be any `more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain`…
And we, we’ll move into the life God created us for (2 Cor 5:5): to be in his presence forever! It’s hard to imagine (but well worth trying!) how fantastic this will be. 1 Corinthians 2 tells us `no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him`; Ephesians 2:7 says that God plans to use the coming ages to show us just how colossally he loves us. We can see why Titus 2:13 says `we wait for the blessed hope – the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ` that will bring us into all this! God is a God of infinite love, joy, and creativity, and it’s going to be unbelievably wonderful to experience that fully. In comparison we have only tasted the slightest droplets of love and joy even in our best moments here!
But then there could be nothing more tragic than to miss out on this (as many of our friends may). Hell is absolute separation from God, and therefore absolute separation (if we can imagine it) forever from all love, and joy, and peace, and hope, as he is the source of all these things. No one could conceive of anything more catastrophic; God’s love, and above all what that love brought Jesus to do on the cross, should motivate us each to do all we can to ensure that nobody, anywhere at all, fails to realize the huge consequences of joining their beings now to Jesus, or not. If we’re separated from Jesus when we die, that means permanent, disastrous separation from him; if we’re joined to Jesus when we die, we’ll be with him forever in heaven, sharing glory beyond our wildest dreams. If we see things the way Jesus does, we’ll know people throughout the world desperately need to hear this!
Practically, therefore, global mission, and world evangelism, reflect the deepest, passionate heartbeat of our God for this lost and dying world, and his desire to bring us all out of darkness, into his kingdom, and into his joy. This is God’s passion, and it must be ours, each of us!
More about that next week in the final post of this Foundations course…
