20: The Church and the Gospel of the Kingdom

Question 1

What is the relationship between the gospel and the kingdom?

Answer 1

The gospel is the declaration of the kingship of YHWH.

Question 2

How is the biblical storyline told as the kingdom story?

Answer 2

• Kingdom made
• Kingdom threatened
• Kingdom promised, modeled and failed in Israel
• Kingdom inaugurated in Christ
• Kingdom lived, proclaim and expanded by the church
• Kingdom consummated at the appearing of Christ

Question 3

What is the extent of the kingdom of God? How does Gordon Spykman refers to it?

Answer 3

All creation. He is king of all things.

“The kingdom of God is the only thing that matters. But because it is the only thing that matters, all things matter, because the kingdom lays claim to all things.”

Question 4

What is meant by the ambiguity of the kingdom?

Answer 4

That the purpose of the coming of the kingdom of God (God’s kingship) is the restoration of the kingdom of God (all things).

Question 5

What was the jewish conception of The Day of the Lord?

Answer 5

A divine visitation that would purge the world from sin and death.

“The age to come”

Question 6

What was the relationship between Jesus and the kingdom of God?

Answer 6

The King has come.

• All gospels begin with an identification of Jesus as the Messiah
• Jesus proclaim the coming of the kingdom of God
• Jesus’ miracles were an embodied sermon, not to impress but to announce the coming of the kingdom.
• The kingdom of God is present in Christ

Question 7

What is the basic proclamation of the Gospel?

Answer 7

The inbreaking of the kingdom of God.

Question 8

Whta is the relationship of the church to the kingdom?

Answer 8

• The church is called to kingdom mission
  
  • A people redeemed with a purpose
• The kingdom is larger than the organized and institutionalized church
  
  • There is not a part of reality that King Jesus does not claim
  • Christian faith and worship is not divorced from the world

Question 9

What are the five ways in which the church serves the kingdom?

Answer 9

1. The church is the citizenry of the kingdom.
2. The church exists for the sake of the kingdom.
3. The church witnesses to the kingdom.
4. The church points to the kingdom by its words and its life in the world.
5. The church is the custodian of the kingdom, mediating the Word and blessings of the kingdom toward the world.