Lent: Following Jesus in the Advance of His Kingdom
John 12:26
Good morning, brothers.
I’m up early, coffee in hand, reading Scripture before heading to the YMCA once Kari’s fully awake. I’m praying for you today, trusting God is guiding you, shaping you, and growing you in Him.
Having spent most of my adult life in Southern Baptist circles, I’m still relatively new to Lent. It’s a season of fasting, prayer, contemplation, and deeper dedication to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, as we prepare our hearts to celebrate His resurrection, rule, and reign from heaven. I'm thankful for Lent. I need it.
This morning, I’m more confident than ever that God’s Kingdom is advancing forcefully all over the world. In Matthew 11:12, Jesus says: “And from the time John the Baptist began preaching until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and violent people are attacking it.”
A parallel verse comes in Luke 16:14-18: “The Pharisees, who dearly loved their money, heard all this and scoffed at him. Then he said to them, ‘You like to appear righteous in public, but God knows your hearts. What this world honors is detestable in God’s sight. Until John the Baptist, the law of Moses and the messages of the prophets were your guides. But now the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is eager to get in. But that doesn’t mean that the law has lost its force. It is easier for heaven and earth to disappear than for the smallest point of God’s law to be overturned. For example, a man who divorces his wife and marries someone else commits adultery. And anyone who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.’”
Heavy, challenging words. But they’re God’s Word, and I believe them fully. In this time of global turmoil, and yet great Kingdom advance, dig into Scripture. Ask: How does this apply to my life? To those I lead?
Consider this radical truth from Galatians 3:26-29: “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.”
We belong to Jesus. All who put faith in Him share Abraham’s blessing. Unity.
And Ephesians 4:4-6: “For there is one body and one Spirit, just as you have been called to one glorious hope for the future. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all, in all, and living through all.”
Men, in Lent and beyond, let’s press in forcefully, not passively, embracing this unity, fearlessly pursuing the Kingdom.
Life is hard. Jesus knows. Pick up your cross. Press on.
We must be honest with ourselves. And God! I’ll start: I’m a sinner. Without God, I’m hopeless, doomed.
It is God who reveals our sin and exposes our innermost motives and desires. The Bible isn’t like Instagram. It doesn’t cover up warts.
God is honest. Scripture is honest. God doesn’t use His Word to just appear moral or to hide immorality. God’s very nature defines morality. It is in God’s word that we see goodness and true love. It is by God's standard that we are able to assess good from evil (see, for instance, 2 Kings 23 for how far the Judeans stooped before the Babylonian invasion and exile).
In situation after situation, God roots out evil and exposes it. Consider the tragic rot of sexual abuse and institutional cover-ups that have plagued the Catholic Church and Southern Baptist circles in recent years. Yet despite these grievous failures, make no mistake: the Church remains overwhelmingly an instrument of good, central to God's purpose of building His Kingdom.
The Church is God's primary instrument for exercising His authority and advancing His kingdom on earth. Jesus declares that He will build His church to overcome the powers of darkness and grants it the 'keys of the kingdom' with binding and loosing authority (Matthew 16:18-19); He then commissions it to make disciples of all nations under His supreme authority (Matthew 28:18-20). The church displays God's wisdom to heavenly powers as the household of God and pillar of truth, actively carrying out His eternal purpose of redemption and kingdom expansion (Ephesians 3:10; 1 Timothy 3:15).
We are good at creating legalistic rules - the very ones Jesus told Peter to tear down (drink this, eat that, etc.). But it is Jesus, God Himself, who sets the standard.
You tell the root by the fruit! If you cover up sin and prioritize money over the lost, poor, hungry, and sick, then you know your root is desperately rotten.
I find myself in this time of Lent mindful of my sin and my deep need for Jesus. I’m also blown away by the great awakening of God happening worldwide. I'm amazed by how so many are coming to faith worldwide - must have conversations are finally happening. My prayer is that many millions and maybe even billions of souls will come to Christ through an honest discussion of sin, depravity, salvation, and our only hope: Jesus Christ.
God humbles the proud as only He can do. Lent is a time to humble ourselves before our Maker. Repent, for the Kingdom of God is near.
As old Saskatchewan farmers teach the young: remember the rule of context. Context rules! That is, we always use the New Testament to interpret the Old, just as Jesus did on the road to Emmaus after His resurrection. There, He walked with two disciples and “took them through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27). He showed how the old points to and is fulfilled in the new, revealing Himself as the center of it all.
The old covenant is obsolete; it has been replaced by God with the New: “When God speaks of a ‘new’ covenant, it means he has made the first one obsolete. It is now out of date and will soon disappear.” (Hebrews 8:13).
When we look at the lives of David and Solomon, Elijah and Elisha, we see the real deal: the good, bad, and ugly. Largely, when I think of King David, I think about how he pleased God. But the Bible includes his foibles and failings as well.
Similarly, there is an amazing story at the end of 2 Kings (just after the exile of the northern ten tribes to Assyria and just before the exile of Judah to Babylon) about King Josiah (2 Kings 22 and 23). In it, we hear of a man who, via God’s Word, sees not only his sin but the deep and disturbing sin and devil worship of his nation. It makes him sick to death. Josiah repents, and he asks the entire nation to do the same. And it pleases God greatly. God let Josiah die in peace before He brought justice on Jerusalem (2 Kings 22:20; 23).
It’s a message of Lent. It’s a message for us to humble ourselves and repent. In that story, I see my own sin. The Holy Spirit is soberly showing me how desperately depraved I am and that I need Jesus more than ever.
We see how depraved Judah was at that time: Asherah poles in the LORD’s Temple, male and female shrine prostitutes with living quarters right in the Temple, sacrifice of their own children to the devil. It’s sickening and sad. But while Jesus defeated evil on the Cross, make no mistake, evil still exists. We don’t have to look beyond our own chair, our own TV screen, or our own heart to see it.
I don’t know about you, but when I read 2 Kings 23, I am shocked. How on earth could King Solomon, the wise man and inheritor of the Kingdom, do such a wicked thing as to build “shrines for Ashtoreth, the detestable goddess of the Sidonians; and for Chemosh, the detestable god of the Moabites; and for Molech, the vile god of the Ammonites”?
Mind-blowing. Yet what detestable shrines have we built up that must be torn down and exorcised?
Thank God for Lent. Seriously, we need to recommit and to focus on our Lord and our God, a time for repentance and renewal, a time to trust God as we approach Passover, nay, Easter.
What will we do in obedience to Christ our King? How will we respond to the Gospel of Christ (1 Cor. 15)? As we think about what God will say to us when He judges us (Rev. 22:12), let us consider what He said of Josiah: “Never before had there been a king like Josiah, who turned to the LORD with all his heart and soul and strength, obeying all the laws of Moses. Even so, the LORD was very angry with Judah because of all the wicked things Manasseh had done to provoke him. For the LORD said, ‘I will also banish Judah from my presence just as I have banished Israel. And I will reject this city that I have chosen, Jerusalem, and the Temple about which I said, “My name shall be there.”’”
This Lent I’m reminded that my life is in God’s hands. Totally. Not just this life, but the life to come. Through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, all people can believe in Him and have new life, eternal life.
Jesus said, “Those who love their life in this world will lose it. Those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for eternity. Anyone who wants to serve me must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.” (John 12:25-26)
We receive the Holy Spirit by following Jesus alone. There is only one true people of God (Galatians 3:5). The Holy Spirit tells us this: “In the same way, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.’ So you see, those who put their faith in Christ share the same blessing Abraham received because of his faith.”
Don't depend on legalism. Be very wary of those who build their own empires, taking from God rather than serving Him. You cannot be made right by God by your DNA, your nationality, your tribe, your law degree, or your pedigree. Only Christ gives eternal life.
This Lent, receive the Holy Spirit through faith (Galatians 3:14).
Ask God in faith to do hard things. For Christ our King is the Master of the Impossible, the Maker and Creator. God can turn back the clock and move it forward. Yes, indeed He can even pause time. Miracles and Signs. Yes, that is Jesus’ way (2 Kings 20:10-11).
God has one people alone, those with the faith of Abraham.
In 2 Kings 17, God rejected the northern kingdom of Israel for their persistent idolatry and disobedience, leading to the Assyrian exile in 722 BC: “And so the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He punished them by handing them over to their attackers until he had banished Israel from his presence.” The chapter details how “this disaster came upon the people of Israel because they worshiped other gods.” They followed the practices of the nations around them until the king of Assyria captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile.
Similarly, in 2 Kings 22–23, God’s judgment came on Judah despite Josiah’s reforms, showing that only faith, not bloodline or location, defines God's people.
As James reminds us: “And so the Scripture was fulfilled that says, ‘Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.’ He was even called the friend of God.”
Lord Jesus, please show me where to work and serve. Help me, for I desperately need You. Lead me today if you are willing. Help my family and friends. Please sanctify us and make us pure as we yearn to celebrate Your resurrection. Amen.
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