Lk 9.57-10.20: How to be an Apocalyptic Christian in 4 Easy Steps
Introduction
When I pose the question, “How to be an Apocalyptic Christian?” numerous thoughts or images might fly through your mind. Is it like David Koresh and the Branch Dividians of Waco, Texas U.S.A? Is that like one of those preachers who stand on street corners with signs around their neck that the world is about to end? Incidentally, on the Gold Coast [Australia] I once came across a lady who walked around with a sign saying that Ross Perot is the anti-Christ. Or is an apocalyptic Christian someone who owns the complete series of left-behind books. Did you know that some of the first Anabaptists were ultra-Apocalyptic, e.g. in Munster in Germany in 1533 Jan Matthys declared himself to be Enoch, Munster was the New Jerusalem and practiced polygamy and sharing of community of goods.
For a start what does Apocalyptic mean? Well its not a Latin American dance!
When defined (perhaps overly simply) Apocalyptic is: a religious perspective embodied by a community that sees itself as living in the midst of an evil world and eagerly awaiting God’s action to dramatically deliver them from it.
I submit to you that Christians are called to be Apocalyptic. We believe in the final victory of God in Christ over evil, over the world, over sin, over death and over Satan. But (and this is my crucial point) we are not only called to await for the coming triumph but to participate in its arrival.
Every time we pray the Lord’s Prayer and say, “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven,” we are praying an apocalyptic prayer for the Kingdom of God to be manifested on earth.
Now we could be very passive and pessimistic about it. Separate ourselves completely from the world and build a commune some where in the outback.
Say the Lord’s Prayer 3 times a day; Baptize ourselves once a month. Write a list of rules and regulation on how to sustain our own purity. Write a commentary on the book of Daniel. And wait for God to zap everyone. Instead we are called join in the cosmic saga of how God intends to repossess the world for himself: in short mission. I propose four steps to becoming apocalyptic Christians.
1. Renounce all other allegiances and participate in the Kingdom Mission (Lk 9.57-62)
This passage is set at the beginning of the journey towards Jerusalem: Jesus’ own mission to the cross. Three characters are paraded before us who react differently to the call to follow Jesus in mission.
Volunteer 1
He says, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus replied, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” The language here is laden with symbolism as to what Jesus means. Fox: Possibly denotes King Herod (an Idumean). Birds of the Air – Symbol for Gentiles in OT and apocalyptic Jewish literature. Son of Man – Who according to Daniel 7 is representative of Israel who inherits the kingdom on behalf of Israel. In essence Jesus could be saying that everyone is at home in Israel accept those who belong in Israel. The true Israel and all who belong to her are disinherited and dispossessed. If you want to join me you have to join the ranks of the homeless.
What this saying strikes at are those followers of Jesus who say, “Yeah, sure, I’ll follow you. Count me in.” But they are committed to the point of convenience. I’ll follow you
As long as I never go hungry
As long as I never get cold
As long as I always have a roof above my head.
As long as my bank account is left in tack
As long as my standard of living is maintained
But if you do follow Jesus, then a life of subsistence is a possibility.
Recruit 1
Here Jesus takes the initiative in calling (vv. 59-60). Now this is a very hard saying to deal with – it is bone rattling. The key thing is that the Father is not yet dead, if he was he would already be at the funeral. It was taken for granted that the eldest son would bury his parents and set their affairs in order – it was the honorable thing. Don’t do it means dishonor. This type of disciple is committed to the point of respectability. I will follow after I have publicly fulfilled my traditional responsibility. I will follow as long as my public reputation remains in tact. I will follow after I’ve got myself a good education, a good job, a good family, paid off the house. And as long as I don’t have to embarrass myself.
Volunteer 2
There is an instance of a second volunteer (vv. 61-62). Now it might seem a little harsh that Jesus won’t even let him say good bye. ‘Cause even Elisha farewelled his parents before he joined Elijah in 1 Kgs 19-20. But in the Middle-East a person could only leave his parents once he had the permission of his parents. Kenneth Bailey, a biblical scholar who lived in the Orient for twenty years, says that when he explained this parable to some middle-eastern seminary students (that Jesus has more authority than Dad) they turned white. Let me give some contemporary examples:
Parents: ‘Mum, Dad, I’ve decided to quite the family business and become a school Chaplain’ – Oh no you’re not.
Fiancée: “Darling, I’ve been called to go Madagascar.” – Really, here’s your ring back.
This type of disciple is more committed to keeping people happy.
A Christian is committed to both the KoG and to his/her own family and when they are in conflict it is excruciating. All the same, despite the cost, we are called to put Kingdom priorities above and beyond our own exuberant lifestyle, community expectation and even parental obedience. To follow Jesus is not an inner warmth but instead means taking on strenuous and demanding service.
In each case there is a call to follow and a statement of the cost involved. If we are to be apocalyptic Christians then we must be willing to take up the cost.
[Illustration] Giuseppe Garibaldi lived from 1807 to 1882. He was an Italian patriot, soldier, and hero-figure. He devoted his life to the cause of uniting Italy. His greatest victory was the 1860 overthrow of the Kingdom of Naples. That event ultimately led to the unification of Italy. In May of that year, Garibaldi had landed in Sicily with a volunteer force of 1070 men (the "Thousand"). Within two weeks this force had taken the city of Palermo, forcing the capitulation of an army of 20,000 regulars. Garibaldi had an incredibly committed volunteer army. He would appeal for recruits in these terms: "I offer neither pay, nor quarters, nor provisions; I offer hunger, thirst, forced marches, battles and death. Let him who loves his country with his heart and not with his lips only, follow me!" Jesus gives us a similar challenge. Those who want to be part of his kingdom must be willing to pay to sacrifice some of the things they hold the dearest.
2. Proclaim the Kingdom (Lk 10.1-11)
Jesus sends out his disciples two by two and gives them the precise details of what they are to do. What I find to be of significance here is the message (vv. 9-11). “The Kingdom of God has come near”. It is both a message of salvation and judgment. I’ve got good news “the Kingdom of God is near”; I’m warning you “the Kingdom of God is near”. Defined, the Kingdom of God is: The sovereign saving power of covenant and creator God which lies on the horizon. It is both now/not yet. In the OT the great hope was for the day when God himself would become King and rule over Israel and the nations. The “Kingdom of God is near” means that the shot clock has wound down to zero. Jesus elsewhere announces the “good news of the kingdom” and called people to “repent and believe”. He urged them to make a faith commitment to him and renounce their other allegiances and to follow him as God’s final envoy to the Israel.
[Illustration] A classic example analogy of this is its parallel to the end of WWII.
- D-Day (June 6, 44). The Allied forces invade Normandy, breaking the back of the Germans and ensuring their total victory. Yet, the war lingered on even though the Nazis were defeated.
- Yet, it wasn’t till V-Day (May 7, 45). Like that period b/t D & V day, we are living in a period between the inauguration of the Kingdom and the Consummation of the Kingdom.
3. Prepare for Conflict with Powers of this World (Lk 10.12-16)
Here Jesus denounces the response of various towns (Jewish and Gentile) who did not respond to his message. Similarly, his own disciples should expect no different treatment. If they hated him they are all the more likely to hate us.
Matter of fact I could think of adding some woes. (Woe to you Turkmenistan) President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov; who forces Christians to renounce their faith. (Woe to you France) where a Baptist Bible College was closed down. (Woe to Sweden) where it is illegal for Christains to denounce homosexuality as a sin.
In personal evangelism it is easier to share with people we don’t know because we are afraid of rejection from people we do know. But if we truly care for that person, if we believe in the salvation God offers, if we really believe in the grotesqueness of hell, then we should tell them. Fear of rejection is not a suitable objection.
[Illustration]. MICHAEL CARD tells the story of a man named Joseph who came to Christ out of a muslim background. One day walking a hot dirty African road met someone who shared Christ with him. Then and there he accepted Jesus as his Savior and the power of the Holy Spirit overwhelmed him with such joy that the first thing he wanted to do was go back and tell his own villiage. He went from door to door telling of the cross and the forgiveness for sin. He expected their faces to light up as his had when they discovered this wonderful truth. To his amazement they became violent: the men seized him and held him to the ground while the women beat him with strands of barbed wire. Dragged and left to die alone in the bush. He revived and made it to a water hole where he spent days recovering. He was confused and finally decided that he must have left something out or not told the story correctly. After rehearsing the message he returned. Stood in the circle of huts and began to proclaim Jesus. Again grabbed by men and beaten by women, reopening the wounds that had just begun to heal. Dragged unconscious again and left to die. TO have survived the first time was remarkable but to survive this beating was a miracle. Days later he awoke and determined to go back. This time he was attacked before he even opened his mouth.
4. Be Motivated by the Fact that the Powers of this World are Defeated in the Proclamation of the Kingdom (10:17-20)
The disciples return from their mission rejoicing at the success. Here Jesus offers a very enigmatic comment in v. 18. There are two ways of understanding this:
(1) It refers to the casting out of Satan from Heaven as portrayed in (Jud 6; Rev 12:12). Jesus saw in his pre-Incarnation Satan falling from heaven. The moral is ‘don’t get too cocky because you might fall just as Satan.’ But I don’t think that is the point.
(2) Jesus had a vision of what was happening in the spiritual realm. In the activity of his disciples the kingdom of Satan was suffering a paralyzing defeat. The disciples are ousting Satan from his throne. This coheres with Jesus’ own view of his ministry. In Mark 3 in the Beelzebub controversy, Jesus announces that he is the strongman who binds Satan and plunders his goods. The exorcisms of Jesus are proof that Satan is being defeated.
In Luke 11:20 Jesus says, “If I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you.”
This is why you should be an apocalyptic Christian. To the casual observer a few wandering religious teachers and healers who went out for a tour was all that happened. They preached, they prayed, they left. But in reality it was a triumph of the gospel over the evil forces of this age. A shattering blow for the Satanic realm. Just like the song, “I fall down and I get up again” so too does Satan. He was down but not out and his influence in this fallen world continues. But he is dethroned and disempowered whenever and wherever we engage in world wide mission or personal evangelism. Mission is not second thought or an activity to pass the time until the second coming.
Mission is the very mechanism by which Satan is being defeated and cast out from his position of authority and the reign of God installed. The most powerful weapon in the arsenal of every Christian is the proclamation of the gospel. The experience of mission is the arena of conflict and engagement with diabolical forces. When you share your faith with others you are becoming an eschatological weapon of God against the prince of this world. Mission is an apocalyptic event. On the reverse side it means that the victory of Satan is when Christians shut up about the gospel. Silence is the sound of the Satan’s triumph.
Conclusion
Be an apocalyptic Christian – engage in campaign for the defeat of Satan and the extension of the kingdom of God until it is manifest on earth in its fullness.
I want to move onto a somber point: do we really believe it?
The great atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell remarked, ‘That if Christians really believed what they said they did, they would change the world.’ Perhaps the reason why the world is so untransformed is partly because we do not really believe the message and we are not really convicted by the reality and imminence of the kingdom of Christ.
If we are not involved in mission, in personal evangelism, or at least supporting and encouraging those who are, it is probably because we don’t really believe it.
It is not just what we believe, but the passion and the urgency of what we believe that makes us true Disciples of Christ.
Just like the three disciples who Jesus called before the mission commenced, are you committed to the point of convenience or are you personally engaged in the business of the kingdom.
Resources
Joel Green, The Gospel of Luke. NICNT.
I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke. NIGTC.
Leon Morris, Luke. TNTC.
John Nolland, Luke (3 vols). WBC.
Kenneith Bailey, Poet and Peasant.
Ben Witherington. Jesus the Seer.
mfbird@telstra.com
