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God's Emerging City
We begin the theme of God’s Emerging City – Christ’s Ultimate Success Among The Nations by examining an amazing conversation that Jesus had with a Samaritan woman in John Chapter 4. He spoke to her of true worship as occurring not in certain specified “holy” geographical locations but in the Holy Spirit. God’s people don’t simply go to worship; they live lives of worship.
Jesus’ lifestyle of intimacy with and obedience to His Father generated spiritual food for Him that the disciples (and probably many of us as well) simply did not understand. As a result, He perceived a potential spiritual harvest among a theologically misguided people (the Samaritans) while the disciples saw only the flawed masses. He then reaped where He had not previously sown and so revealed a strategic principle of God’s kingdom: believers are to enter into the labors of others who have gone before them.
As a result, God intends for the Church to gather from many religiously flawed peoples a spiritual harvest based not simply on our own sowing but on the sowing of previous generations. The implications are greater than many have considered.
The Church will indeed prosper. But God’s route to spiritual prosperity is the way of the cross. Israel’s Messiah is the premiere example of success, because He embraced the Father’s will at Calvary and now sits enthroned at His right hand. Because of Christ’s obedience, His success both in ruling the nations and in preparing His Bride to reign with Him forever will be made universally known.
When He walked the earth, Jesus revealed both in His life and in His death God’s heart and purpose toward mankind. His mission in life was not to please the ones to whom He had been sent, but to reveal to them the One who had sent Him. As a result, when He encountered difficult and unjust circumstances, He refused to retaliate. In praying for the forgiveness of those who crucified Him, He revealed the nature of God. And in dying, He overcame.
The greatest victory in the great spiritual war presently engulfing the human race was won when the mighty Lion of Judah became Heaven’s Lamb and stripped the enemy of his weapons. As a result, He has purposed to loot and plunder Satan’s camp, and then share the spoils of war with His followers. Or to put it another way, vast numbers of lost people will be added to His house before the war ends.
One key element of God’s strategy has to do with the nation of Israel. Though Israel rejected her Messiah in the first century, a Jewish remnant wholeheartedly followed Him. The New Testament Scriptures give insight into their story. In fact, a study of both the Bible and of history reveals God’s ability to keep for Himself a faithful remnant people.
So what are we to think of Israel’s future? Paul informs us that her fall was not permanent. In fact, God has started a work among the nations to get her attention and make her jealous. When His international project comes to fullness, Israel will then turn back to Him. The coming salvation of Israel will have amazing implications for the Earth. At the heart of New Testament apostolic ministry is God’s strategy to reveal to Israel her Messiah through a corporate body before He returns. It is only when the Church learns to function as a corporate body (bodyness is the term we’ve coined to describe this process) that she will succeed in her calling.
Very simply, His design is for the Church to recapture her identity as the body of Messiah, the body of Christ a living corporate organism defined by the life of the Holy Spirit.
Many years before Jesus walked the Earth, the prophet Isaiah predicted that the deep darkness upon the nations in his day would be interrupted by a glorious visitation. Sure enough, like the dawning of a new day, Jesus was revealed to Israel. Since Calvary, there has gradually emerged (one could even say – in fits and starts) the growing light of God’s kingdom even as the darkness stubbornly tries to hold the nations in its grip. But the promise remains: nations will turn toward the increasing manifest glory of God.
God’s vehicle for getting the attention of the nations is His people, His city. Throughout Church history, the gates of the city have been open, beckoning those in darkness to enter. In fact, God’s work of beautifying His city will ultimately succeed as He continues drawing the nations to himself.
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