Kevin Swanson - Taking the World for Jesus: The Remarkable Story of the Greatest Commission

First printing: November 2017

Copyright 2017 by Generations. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews. For information write:

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ISBN: 978-1-68344-079-6

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This book is dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ,

who is Lord of all.

He is the Chief Shepherd of His Church.

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Contents

Preface

I t is my hope that this book will encourage Christians everywhere around the world. Our perspective of the Kingdom of God is always too small. We are too short-sighted. We have a hard time seeing beyond our immediate situation when we encounter the ebb and flow of Gospel work, not to mention our own limitations and sinfulness. As this study opens up the aperture for a worldwide perspective and a 2,000-year view of the progress of Christ in history, I trust it will leave a permanent word of encouragement with the reader.

Where mans kingdoms and mans works have been of central importance in many of our history books today, this book is shifting the focus. After all, history is His story . God is completely sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and the Son of God is establishing His Church in the world. Indeed, Jesus is changing the world by the power of the Word and Spirit.

Therefore, in each section of the book we establish the world context first. We ask the question, what in the world is going on in this nation or that nation? Then, Jesus and His people enter the scene and everything changes. Every century marks progress. The empires of this world come and go, but Christs Church presses on.

I have integrated Scripture into the book in order that the reader might see that Gods will is coming to pass on this earth, in time and space. The Christian must learn to interpret history through the lens of Scripture, a biblical worldview. We must prioritize certain events only because thats what Scripture does. We must discern between good and evil events, right and wrong actions by Gods law, not by mans law.

To further enrich this study, the reader is encouraged to saturate it in Word and prayer throughout. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you read, and be sure to end each reading in thanksgiving and prayer. The power that has transformed nations through the centuries is still accessible to us here and now. How might the Lord Jesus Christ visit your community or your church, by the outpouring of His Spirit? The potentialities are thrilling.

When Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

So they said, Some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.

He said to them, But who do you say that I am?

Simon Peter answered and said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Jesus answered and said to him, Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it (Matt. 16:1318).

Introduction

H ow do you look at the world? Some will look at the world, and they do not see very much. They can see their own neighborhood, but they do not give a lot of thought to the bigger world beyond. They reflect little on what happened last year and have scant knowledge of what took place in the last century. All they focus on is what is happening in their world this week. They have a very small perspective of the world.

Some people will read the newspapers, and they think of what is going on in sports and civil government. They watch nations rise and nations fall. They see athletes win big games, and then these athletes grow old and die. They see rich people building big towers, and eventually these big towers fall down. Sometimes men will build even bigger towers, and these towers come down too. Beyond this, they think that little else of consequence is happening in the world.

But what about those of us who follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born in Bethlehem, died on the cross, and rose again on the third day? How do we view the world? How should we look at history?

We must begin by recognizing that Gods Wordgiven to us in the Old and New Testamentsis the light we need to rightly see and understand the world around us. His sure testimony is a lamp to [our] feet and a light to [our] path (Ps. 119:105), and there are a number of key truths found in Scripture that we must grasp in order to have a proper outlook on the world.

Christs Resurrection transformed the world.

An ancient tomb in the Holy Land.

First of all, the life, death and the Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the most important event in the history of the world (Acts 13:2639). Those who ignore or minimize this pivotal work of God will veer off course in their attempts to interpret history. All of history centers around this great event of His death and Resurrection.

Appropriately, history is divided by the years that come before and after Christ. Almost every calendar in the world today is set around the date of Jesus birth. Our calendars use the term a.d. for the present designation. This is an abbreviation of the Latin phrase anno Domini, which means in the year of our Lord. We published this book in a.d . 2017, for example. A monk by the name of Dionysius the Humble, who lived somewhere in modern-day Romania or Bulgaria, introduced this designation in a.d . 525. When we speak of the years before Jesus birth, we use the letters b.c. or before Christ.

Secondly, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is in control of all of history as we read in Colossians 1:

For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist (Col. 1:1617).

Not only does Jesus control all things, but He holds everything together (Heb. 1:3). He holds the nations together (Ps. 22:28). He holds families together (Deut. 7:9). He also holds entire eco-systems together, so that the sun will shine, the rain will fall, and the crops will grow every year (Gen. 8:2122).