“And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come!” –Matthew 24:14
I grew up in a world where children's relationships with God were not as important as the adults in the community. Churches were filled with the elderly, and it was up to the children to either join them or not. My choice was to not. There was nothing I could relate to inside the church. It was the most boring place, since the main focus was on the adults.
Throughout my teenage and post-teenage life I found myself in the world of sports. The sports people were automatically disqualified from the church for various reasons, including that the games were played during the weekend on Saturdays and Sundays. You had to either choose sports or church. You all can guess what I chose!
When I look deeply on the words of Jesus from Matthew 24:14, I see that all the things I believed about the church growing up—that it was only for the old people, that I was disqualified—were lies. Here, in this scripture, it's evident that everyone has a right to hear the good news of the Kingdom regardless of their geographical and ethnic differences. That includes children and soccer players!
We've heard several different messages of good news so far in this series: we’ve heard the good news about the death and resurrection of Jesus, the good news from Jesus himself about the Kingdom, and now this good news of the final coming of his Kingdom to reign.
In Matthew 24:14, Jesus is painting a picture of the end of many horrors, challenges, and hardships through the kingdom of the world becoming the Kingdom of our God. But the end will not just come randomly; there's a condition: "only when the gospel of his kingdom is proclaimed in the whole world" and to everyone will the Kingdom of God come.
My question now comes in here: which people groups are not part of the "whole world"? Which "nations'' are not included here? Are sports people part of this? How about children? Street kids, are they mentioned? How about orphans? The poor? What about the rich?
We don't know exactly when the end will be but this verse tells us that it's when the gospel is proclaimed to all around the world. This doesn't mean that everyone will accept the good news. But the condition remains that everyone must hear it. That's when the end will come.
We don’t know when the end will come but we know what we need to do. Hearing Jesus say these things means that it's possible, and that God wants to use all of us to fulfill this message.
For Reflection:
Who are the people in my community I haven’t noticed who need the good news? Ask the Lord to reveal them to you.
Even though we do not know when and how exactly the end will come, do you think you have a contribution toward it happening? Do you think God is fair enough to have given you power to contribute toward the end coming?
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lydiah Aswani lives in the Githurai community of Nairobi, Kenya. Githurai is one of the most overlooked communities around Nairobi, a place no one believes something good can come from. Lydiah has been part of Novo for a year, but got involved with and learned about Novo during her local apprenticeship before that time. Lydiah does sports ministry in her community and focuses on kids, teenagers, and young local leaders. She pursues these goals through the fun sport of jump rope. Lydiah’s family includes Emmanuel, her husband, and their son Emmanuel.