Evangelism and the Kingdom of Yahuwah | Part A

While the Kingdom of Yahuwah was the central theme of all preaching in the New Testament, it has been virtually ignored by modern-day evangelists. This absence of Kingdom-centered evangelism has had devastating effects on the Western church and has now reached critical mass. An anthropocentric gospel of American individualism, which traces its roots back no farther than to the American frontier, has replaced the Yahuwah-centered “gospel of the kingdom.” The deficiency is so great that most evangelists and professors of evangelism would be hard-pressed even to define the “gospel of the kingdom” (Matt. 24:14; Mark 1:14). The result has been a watered-down message that has no power to change lives.

The Basis for Preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom

When John the Baptist came preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of Yahuwah is at hand!” (Matt. 3:2), his hearers understood he was referring to the eschatological age foretold by Old Testament prophets, a time when Yahuwah would send a promised messianic king to defeat Israel’s enemies and usher in a new age of universal peace. John called people to break with the past as a requirement to enter the Kingdom and escape the coming judgment.

After John’s arrest, “Yahushua came preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and saying, ‘The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of Yahuwah is at hand’” (Mark 1:14-15). Luke tells us that when Yahushua stood in the synagogue and read a messianic passage from the prophet Isaiah, he concluded by saying, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21). Later, when asked if he were the promised messiah, Yahushua replied, “I am” (Mark 14:62). The waiting period was over. The Kingdom had arrived in Yahushua. It was no longer a distant hope, but it now had a name and a face connected with it.²

Soon after his synagogue discourse, Yahushua told the crowds, “I must preach the kingdom of Yahuwah to other cities also, because for this purpose I have been sent” (Luke 4:43). Everywhere he went he proclaimed the “glad tidings of the kingdom of Yahuwah” (Luke 8:1). The 12 apostles traveled with him.

Is it any wonder as he sent them out, he commissioned them “to preach the kingdom” (Luke 9:1- 2)? Mark’s parallel account of the event says, “So they went out and preached that people should repent” (Mark 6:12), showing the link between the Kingdom and the call to repentance. Yahushua then appointed 70 others to “heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of Yahuwah has come near you’” (Luke 10:1, 9).

The waiting period was over. The Kingdom had arrived in Yahushua. It was no longer a distant hope, but it now had a name and a face connected with it.

Prior to his ascension, the resurrected Lord spent 40 days with the apostles “speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of Yahuwah” (Acts 1:3). Thus, he ended his earthly ministry the way he began it — declaring the Gospel of the Kingdom!

On the mount, after assuring his followers that there would be a future dimension to the Kingdom, he told them that in the interim they were to be his witnesses (Acts 1:8). Therefore, it is not surprising to find them preaching “the things concerning the kingdom of Yahuwah and the name of Yahushua” (Acts 8:12). The Apostle Paul, likewise, taught “concerning the things of the kingdom of Yahuwah” (Acts 19:8). He reminded the elders at Ephesus that he spent three years “preaching the kingdom of Yahuwah” (Acts 20:25, 31). While under house arrest in Rome, “Many came to him at his lodging, to whom he explained and solemnly testified of the kingdom of Yahuwah” (Acts 28:23). The Book of Acts closes, significantly, with these words, “Then Paul dwelt two whole years in his own rented house and received all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of Yahuwah and teaching the things which concern the Lord Yahushua Christ with all confidence, no one forbidding him” (Acts 28:30-31). There can be little doubt that the Good News of the Kingdom was the central theme of first-century evangelistic preaching. Consequently, it should be our focus as well.
 

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¹[Title Footnote from Original Article] http://empoweringkingdomgrowth.org/ekg.asp?page=11 2Used with permission of Baptist Press. Emphasis added.
²It was of course very much still also in the future as the great event of the Second Coming — ed.
³We will be “with the Lord” only at the rapture/resurrection (1 Thess. 4:16-17) — ed.

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This is a non-WLC article written by R. Alan Streett, Professor of evangelism.

We have taken out from the original article all pagan names and titles of the Father and Son, and have replaced them with the original given names. Furthermore, we have restored in the Scriptures quoted the names of the Father and Son, as they were originally written by the inspired authors of the Bible. -WLC Team

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WLC Source: https://www.worldslastchance.com/biblical-christian-beliefs/evangelism-and-the-kingdom-of-yahuwah.html