{"id":18348,"date":"2015-01-18T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-18T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/clarifying-kingdom-confusion\/"},"modified":"2022-01-12T17:18:36","modified_gmt":"2022-01-12T23:18:36","slug":"clarifying-kingdom-confusion","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/clarifying-kingdom-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Clarifying Kingdom Confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[434],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18348","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-john","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Clarifying Kingdom Confusion","sermon_date":"20150118","sermon_month":"1","sermon_year":"2015","sermon_notes":20109,"sermon_slides":20110,"sermon_mp3":20111,"sermon_id":"11815102850","series_or_event":434,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"18:33-36","sermon_transcript":" \n

Andy Woods\nClarifying Kingdom Confusion\n1-18-15\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John 18:33-36\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 109<\/p>\nGood morning everybody; I hope you all are staying warm.\u00a0 If you\u2019re still cold I\u2019ll try to supply the fire this morning from up here, the pulpit. \u00a0Let\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to John 18:33.\u00a0 The title of our message this morning is Clarifying Kingdom Confusion.\u00a0 As you\u2019re turning there, as I indicated last week I had the wonderful privilege of opening up the Texas House of Representatives in prayer on Thursday I believe it was, and they kind of sent me a memo ahead of time, they said we\u2019d like a short prayer and we\u2019d like it to avoid sensitive political issues, so I had to take out that part where I was going to pray \u201ceverybody who disagrees with my political philosophies is on their way to hell.\u201d\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 So I toned it down a little bit but it was a wonderful time.\n\nWe are continuing on in our study of John\u2019s Gospel, but as you\u2019re going to see this morning we are going to be camping on verse 36.\u00a0 We are in a section of John\u2019s Gospel related to the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Chapters 18-19 is everything that went on related to the events leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 We have seen Christ\u2019s arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane and then Jesus is ushered through several trials, legal trials.\u00a0 The first two that John talks about are trials that are religious in nature and these were trials that he experienced at the hands of the Jews, a trial before Annas and then Caiaphas, as we have talked about.\n\nAnd then Jesus is handed over to Pilate.\u00a0 Why is He handed over to Pilate?\u00a0 Because as we saw last week the Roman Empire had come on the scene and they had removed from the Jews the right to execute criminals.\u00a0 John told us, you might recall from last week, that this was [verse 18] \u201cto fulfill the word of Jesus which He spoke, signifying by what kind of death He was about to die.\u201d\n\nHad Jesus been executed by the Jews He would have been stoned to death.\u00a0 If He had been stoned to death that would have invalidated all of Christ\u2019s prophecies about His own crucifixion, and in fact, as I showed you last time there are many prophecies in the Old Testament about His crucifixion.\u00a0 He could not have died through stoning; He had to have been pierced.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why God orchestrated things the way He did and allowed Jesus to be handed over to Rome for execution.\n\nJohn takes the material related to Pilate and he organizes it around four questions.\u00a0 There are four questions that Pilate asks in this section.\u00a0 The first one we looked at last time, what accusation do you have against this man?\u00a0 And now we move into the second question that Pilate asks and this is a question that Pilate asks of Jesus, \u201cAre you the King of the Jews?\u201d\u00a0 And you\u2019ll notice verse 33 as it begins to explain it to us, John 18:33 says, \u201cTherefore Pilate entered again into the Praetorium, and summoned Jesus and said to Him, \u2018Are You the King of the Jews?\u201d\n\nIn the first question and answer session Pilate was outside the Praetorium interacting with the Jewish accusers.\u00a0 Jesus was inside the Praetorium in incarceration.\u00a0 Now why did the Jews not come into the Praetorium?\u00a0 We saw last week in verse 28 that they were trying to protect themselves from ceremonial uncleanliness.\u00a0 Hanging out with the Gentiles, in other words, would make them unfit to celebrate the Passover, blind to the fact that they were in the process of sacrificing the One who was the fulfillment of all of those rich Passover prophecies and pre-figurements in the Old Testament.\n\nSo now Pilate leaves outside his conversation with these unbelieving Jews, he goes inside the Praetorium where Jesus was incarceration, and he begins to ask Jesus a series of questions.\u00a0 He is inside the headquarters that he was using at the time in the city of Jerusalem and he begins to inquire to Jesus, are these things that have been spoken against you true?\n\nNow at this point, and John doesn\u2019t talk about it but Luke brings it up in Luke 23:2, it says, \u201cAnd they began to accuse Him,\u201d that would be the Jews, \u201csaying, \u2018We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding to pay taxes to Caesar, and saying that He Himself is Christ, a King.\u201d\u00a0 The problem is, Jesus in the prior trials was never tried on those charges.\u00a0 No witnesses were ever produced by the Jews to try Jesus on those specific charges.\n\nSo what has happened is the charge has been switched right in the middle of a trial.\u00a0 And it shows you the underhanded nature of these unbelieving Jews.\u00a0 They convicted Christ in their own court system of blasphemy but the problem is, the Romans don\u2019t care about blasphemy.\u00a0 What they care about is insurrection, is this man leading a revolt against Rome.\u00a0 And so right in the middle of the scenario they switch over to a charge that Jesus had never been tried under, and this shows you the unbelieving nature of the Jewish nation and their utter rejection of Jesus Christ. So Pilate, being confused, probably by the smorgasbord of charges that have been raised against Jesus Christ, wanted to hear it, or this evidence, from Christ\u2019s lips Himself.\n\nAnd consequently Pilate asks this question of Jesus Christ in verse 33, \u201cAre you the King of the Jews?\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice verse 34, Christ\u2019s response.\u00a0 \u201cJesus answered, \u2018Are you saying this on your own initiative or did others tell you about Me?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Jesus is trying to ascertain whether Pilate is an honest seeker of truth.\u00a0 I mean, does Pilate want this answer to the question \u201care you King of the Jews\u2019 for the benefit of his own personal salvation or is it because he is simply being manipulated by other individuals.\u00a0 In other words, Pilate, which side are you on, is essentially what Jesus is asking.\u00a0 Are your motives personal or political?\u00a0 Are these things that you are inquiring about of your own volition, or did others put you up to it?\n\nIt is very interesting to me that as we watch this conversation unfold Jesus is very concerned about the personal salvation of Pilate.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t\u2019 that an amazing thing about Jesus Christ, the Second Member of the Trinity?\u00a0\u00a0 As He is being mistreated, as He is being unjustly accused, as people are even hitting Him in the face, as we saw happen in one of the prior trials of Jesus Christ, Jesus is not concerned about Himself.\u00a0 He\u2019s not concerned about vindicating justice for Himself; He is concerned about the personal salvation of Pilate because after all, Pilate is a being that bears the image of God, as all humans do.\u00a0 And because He is a being that bears the image of God Jesus well recognizes that this man, Pilate, is going to be spending eternity somewhere.\u00a0 He\u2019s either going to be spending it separated from God in a place of conscious torment for all eternity or He will be spending it with God.\n\nAnd it is interesting that no matter how badly Jesus is abused and mistreated His concern is always for the souls of people, because people last forever.\u00a0 All of us in this room will be alive somewhere a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now, a billion years from now, a trillion years from now, we will be with God or we will be separated from Him.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the Bible is so interested in what we are going to do with this man, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s why God is interested in this, because what we do with Jesus Christ depends on where we spend our eternity, because after all, as Solomon tells us in the book of Ecclesiastes, \u201cGod has set eternity into the hearts of men.\u201d [Ecclesiastes 3:11, \u201cHe has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart \u2026\u201d]\n\nWhat you see happening here is unmerited grace is coming out towards Pilate, as God, in this age of grace that we\u2019re living in now extends this opportunity for all people.\u00a0 Even if you\u2019ve abused Jesus Christ, even if you have used His name in vain, even if you have lived your life as if He doesn\u2019t exist, He\u2019s still interested in you because your decision related to Him will determine where you spend eternity.\u00a0 Sadly Pilate could care less about these things, as many people are that very way today.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice verse 35, it says, \u201cPilate answered, \u201cI am not a Jew, am I?\u00a0 Your own nation and the chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Pilate, in other words, in verse 35, gives sort of a flippant sarcastic answer.\u00a0 Isn\u2019t it interesting that you have God in human flesh interested in your personal salvation and Pilate simply doesn\u2019t give Jesus the time of day?\u00a0 Pilate probably assumed that this opportunity that he had before him would always exist.\u00a0 And many people are that way, they hear over and over again eternal truths and they are just very flippant, sarcastic, unconcerned, as if the opportunity that is before them will always be, and yet life doesn\u2019t work out that way.\u00a0 Today\u2019s opportunities will not always be there tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0 Pilate had a golden opportunity to secure his eternal destiny and yet he did not take advantage of that opportunity.\n\nPilate is not interested in Jesus Christ for personal salvation; he merely wants clarification of the Sanhedrin\u2019s charge against Him.\u00a0 So he flippantly asks am I a Jew?\u00a0 In other words, I need clarification on why the Jews have accused you because I\u2019m a Roman and I don\u2019t understand all the Jewish religious intricacies.\n\nIt is interesting that Pilate, there in verse 35, acknowledges that \u201cthe chief priests delivered You to me; what have You done?\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice that it was the nation of Israel in its rebellion and unbelief against God that turned against Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That, in essence is the outworking of something John told us was going to happen all the way back in the beginning of his Gospel.\u00a0 You might remember John 1:11, which says, \u201cHe came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.\u201d\n\nAnd now years have passed and this prophecy is coming to pass.\u00a0 John records it, talking about the beginning of Christ\u2019s ministry, that He would come to His own and His own would not receive Him and now we\u2019re seeing the outworking of that as even Pilate is acknowledging that it was the Jewish leadership that turned Christ over to Pilate for execution.\n\nAnd now we come to this very troubling or interesting, depending on your point of view, verse.\u00a0 In fact, this verse, verse 36, is so abused; it\u2019s so misunderstood that I would like to spend the rest of today on verse 36.\u00a0 Notice Christ\u2019s answer to Pilate, verse 36, \u201cJesus answered, \u2018My kingdom is not of this world.\u00a0 If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhat is Christ\u2019s point, before we being to talk about what He didn\u2019t mean?\u00a0 His simple point is this: My kingdom is no immediate threat to Rome, because that\u2019s what Pilate is worried about; are you leading an insurrection?\u00a0 And Christ\u2019s simple point is the kingdom that I am the king over is no immediate threat to Rome. That\u2019s his only point.\u00a0 And sadly what has happened since the fourth century A.D., with the rise of something called amillennialism, is people have used this verse to teach an idea which I believe is heretical; the idea is simply this, there is no earthly reign of Christ on the horizon.\u00a0 There is no earthly reign of Christ coming to rule on planet earth.\n\nThe word \u201cmillennium\u201d is a Latin word, it\u2019s a compound word actually, it comes from two Latin words, mille<\/em>, which means a thousand, and annum<\/em> which means years.\u00a0 We know from Revelation 20:1-10 that there will come a time in history where Jesus will rule planet earth from Jerusalem for a thousand years.\u00a0 An amillennialist denies that; \u201ca\u201d you\u2019ll recognize as a negation, it\u2019s like saying atheist, no God; agnostic, no knowledge, amillennialism, no earthly reign of Christ.\n\nWell, if there is no future earthly reign of Christ on the horizon, because after all Jesus said \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world,\u201d what do you do with all of the Old Testament passages, and the New Testament passages for that matter, that speak of a one thousand year reign of Jesus Christ?\u00a0 What you do is you take all of those passages and you spiritualize them.\u00a0 You chide others that take them literally but you yourself take them spiritually.\n\nSo for example, there is a prophecy about the nations will beat their swords into plow shares, which is talking about global peace, and that gets reinterpreted as the peace of God reigning in our hearts.\u00a0 There is, for example, a prophecy about the Dead Sea coming to life in Ezekiel 47 and teaming with life. Well, that, in the amillennial system, gets repackaged as we go from death to life spiritually.\u00a0 So a very spiritual meaning is attached to all of these concepts and prophecies. And what happens is the prophecies themselves lose their literal grammatical historical sense.\n\nSo there is no, in amillennialism, a future reign of Christ because Jesus is reigning as king in our hearts right now.\u00a0 And quite frankly if this is the millennial kingdom I\u2019m sorry I signed up for this deal in the first place, because what we have today with Christ is wonderful but it pales in comparison to the kingdom age that is on the horizon.\u00a0 And consequently there is tremendous confusion in the church today over this issue of the kingdom; is the kingdom yet future or is the kingdom something that is manifesting itself now.\u00a0 That\u2019s why I\u2019ve entitled this message Clarifying Kingdom Confusion.\n\nI would actually go so far as to say this: every major heresy that has come into the church is ultimately rooted in this amillennial idea that the church now, as it exists, is the kingdom of God.\u00a0 You take, for example, this heresy that we watch regularly on so-called Christian television, the prosperity gospel, this idea that if you are, in fact, a Christian you are entitled to a life of health and wealth and prosperity and leisure, this idea that you should never get sick, what does that ultimately come from?\u00a0 It comes from an idea that we are now in the kingdom age because in the kingdom age there will be complete healing and since I am a kid of the kingdom and we\u2019re in the kingdom currently then I should be able to confess away any disease I might have.\u00a0 \u00a0And if my bank account is not as prosperous as I would like it I have the power as a kid of the king to command that bank account to increase.\u00a0 It\u2019s called the \u201cname it and claim it\u201d doctrine, I call it the \u201cblab it and grab it\u201d doctrine.\u00a0 But it ultimately comes from this idea that we are in the millennial kingdom now.\n\nAnd what happens is people grab this one verse, they ignore everything else the Bible has to say on the subject.\u00a0 They grab this one little verse and they construct a whole doctrine around it.\n\nLet me just show you an example of what I am talking about. I found this yesterday on a school, I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s necessary I give you the name of the school, but it\u2019s an amillennial school.\u00a0 And this is the way their doctrinal statement reads: \u201cAmillennialists believe that Christ\u2019s millennial kingdom extends from His first coming up to His second coming at the end of this present age.\u201d\u00a0 In other words, the kingdom of God is not something yet future; the kingdom of God is something that is happening now, between the two advents of Christ, His first advent and second advent.\u00a0 And they go and they say, \u201cThe millennial reign of Christ is therefore now<\/em>,\u201d I don\u2019t want my pie in the sky, I want it right now is the mindset.\u00a0 \u201cThe millennial reign of Christ is therefore now<\/em>, both in heaven and on earth,\u201d and notice the verse they use to support their doctrine.\u00a0 \u201cJesus Himself declared before Pilate, Pontius Pilate, \u2018My kingdom is not of this world.\u00a0 He reigns presently in the hearts of the new covenant people while they are on the earth\u2026.\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll notice that John 18:36 is a favorite verse, or a favorite passage for amillennialism.\u00a0 What I would like to do this morning is to show you what the whole Bible has to say about this issue of the kingdom.\u00a0 Now I am currently writing for Pre-trib Perspectives a long series on this; I think I\u2019m up to part 33, which I\u2019m not going to give you that whole series today.\u00a0 I have reduced what I want to talk about to eight simple points.\u00a0 If you want more details you can read that series, we faithfully put it out on the name tag table when each new issue comes out.\u00a0 But if you understand these eight simple points you will not fall into kingdom confusion.\u00a0 You will have a framework by which to interpret a verse, like John 18:36.\n\nSo let\u2019s go ahead and start with point number 1, and that is the writings of the Old Testament prophets.\u00a0 The concept of the kingdom is not something that just jumps off the page in the New Testament; it is a concept that is very carefully developed in the pages of the Old Testament.\u00a0 If you were to read these three verses today, Isaiah 2:1-4; Isaiah 11:6-9, Isaiah 65:17-25, you would walk away with a biblical understanding of what the kingdom of God is.\n\n[Isaiah 2:1-4, \u201cThe word which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. [2] Now it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.\u00a0 [3] And may peoples will come and say, \u2018Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.\u2019\u00a0 For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. [4] And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; and they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks.\u00a0 Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.\u201d\n\nIsaiah 11:6-9, \u201cAnd the wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them.\u00a0 [7] Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.\u00a0 [8] The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper\u2019s den.\u00a0 [9] They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.\u201d\n\nIsaiah 65:17-25, \u201cFor behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things will not be remembered of come to mind.\u00a0 [18] But be glad and rejoice forever in what I create; for behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for gladness.\u00a0 [19] I will also rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in My people; and there will no longer be heard in her the voice of weeping and the sound of crying.\u00a0 [20] No longer will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his days; for the youth will die at the age of one hundred and the one who does not reach the age of one hundred will be thought accursed.\u00a0 [21] They will build houses and inhabit them; they will also plant vineyards and eat their fruit.\u00a0 [22] They will not build and another inhabit, they will not plant and another eat; for as the lifetime of a tree, wo will be the days of My people, and my chosen ones will wear out the work of their hands.\u00a0 [23] They will not labor in vain, or bear children fro calamity; for they are the offspring of those blessed by the LORD, and their descendants with them.\u00a0 [24] It will also come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking I will hear.\u00a0 [25] The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent\u2019s food.\u00a0 They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain,\u2019 says the LORD.\u201d]\n\nWhat is the kingdom of God?\u00a0 The kingdom of God is a time in history where Jerusalem will be the center of world spiritual and political authority.\u00a0 The capital of the coming kingdom will not be Washington D. C. (praise the Lord for that!).\u00a0 It will be the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 The word, Isaiah 2:2-3 says will go forth from Zion and the nations will go to Jerusalem to worship the king.\u00a0 [Isaiah 2:2-3, \u201cNow it will come about that in the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it.\u00a0 [3] And many peoples will come and say, \u2018Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that He may teach us concerning His ways and that we may walk in His paths.\u2019\u00a0 For the law will go forth from Zion and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.\u201d]\n\nIt will be a time in history where there will be perfect justice.\u00a0 It will be a time in history where there will be world peace.\u00a0 The nations will beat their swords into plowshares, we are told.\u00a0 It will be a time in history where there will even be peace in the animal kingdom, wolf and lamb will lie down together, a child will be able to put his or her hand in the cobra\u2019s next and not be harmed.\u00a0 It will be a time in history where the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord, and it will be a time in history where people will experience abnormally long life spans.\u00a0 In fact, in Isaiah 65:20 it talks about how if an individual dies at the age of 100 everybody is going to kind of sit around and say wow, what a tragedy that such a young man died.\n\nNow you simply compare these kingdom conditions to what is happening today and you very clearly see that we are not in the kingdom.\u00a0 Is Jerusalem the center of world spiritual and political authority?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think so!\u00a0 That green area represents Islamic nations that desire to drive the nation of Israel into the sea, and that little tiny red dot is the nation of Israel fighting for its life against a sea of totalitarian dictatorships that have as part of their charter the ambition to eradicate the Jews.\u00a0 Obviously Jerusalem is not the center of world authority; Jerusalem is in the way of progress.\n\nI like the way Benjamin Netanyahu puts it.\u00a0 He says, \u201cIf the Arabs put down their weapons today there would be no more violence.\u00a0 If the Jews put down their weapons today there would be no more Israel.\u00a0 That kind of sums it up, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t sound like kingdom conditions.\n\nBeyond this, do we have perfect justice today?\u00a0 I\u2019ll let you leave that one for your consideration.\u00a0 We have world peace today?\u00a0 Are the events that happened in Ferguson or Iran or these things that happened recently in Paris, is that in any way a semblance of world peace?\u00a0 Of course not.\u00a0\u00a0 Is there peace in the animal kingdom?\u00a0 The last time I was at the Houston zoo I noticed that wolf and lamb were in different cages.\u00a0 Is the earth filled with the knowledge of the Lord?\u00a0 We can\u2019t even get the Bible taught in the public school system anymore, and we\u2019re having the hardest time keeping the Bible in the church, as the church is becoming more and more infatuated with marketing programs and things of that nature.\u00a0 Are people living as the lifespan of a tree today?\u00a0 Isaiah says 65:22, \u201cFor as the life time of a tree, so shall be the days of My people.\u201d \u00a0Obviously not if you make it to 100 you\u2019re considered fortunate.\u00a0 But this is the way the Old Testament describes the kingdom of God.\n\nNow number 2, this kingdom was offered to the nation of Israel on a silver platter. When Jesus was present He offered His kingship and the accompanying kingdom to them.\u00a0 We discover that through the repetition of a phrase that is used about four times, three times in Matthew\u2019s Gospel, \u201crepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Now when you study the language, \u201cat hand,\u201d what it means is not that the kingdom is here but the kingdom is near.\u00a0 The nation of Israel, had they enthroned Christ on His terms would have experienced the full nature of the kingdom of God as would have the entire planet.\u00a0 But the gospels very carefully reveal how the nation of Israel rejected that offer.\u00a0 This was an offer that was legitimate and bona fide in nature but it was an offer given only to first century Israel.\n\nIn Matthew 10:5-7 it says this: \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: Do not go in the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter any city of the Samaritans; [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 This would not be a passage we would use at a missions conference because it is not global in nature; it was an offer given to the covenanted people. [7] \u201cAnd as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\n\nBecause the nation of Israel is the covenanted nation they were given the opportunity to enthrone the King and had that happened the kingdom, as Isaiah describes it, would have become a reality to planet earth.\u00a0 But sadly, as we have been studying the Gospel record, this takes us to number 3, there was a rejection of that offer.\u00a0 In fact, the turning point in Matthew\u2019s gospel is Matthew 12:24, which says, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man cast out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 The moment they make that statement is the moment the die has been cast, the offer of the kingdom is now off the table.\n\n \n\nJohn 12:37 gives the turning point as well, and it says \u201cBut though He had performed so many signs before them, yet they were not believing in Him.\u201d\u00a0 The offer is extended; the offer is turned down.\u00a0 And isn\u2019t it interesting how God has a way of turning lemons into lemonade, because what happened is the nation of Israel, as we have been studying, turned Christ over to Pilate; Pilate, as we will discover in John\u2019s Gospel, will execute Christ and in the process the God of the universe took the sins of the whole world and attached them to Christ.\u00a0 And consequently when the Jews turned down the offer of the kingdom and surrendered Christ to Rome for execution God took a very tragic event in human history and turned it around for something positive, to pay the sin debt of the world, which is how God operates.\u00a0 God takes lemons and turns them into lemonade.\n\nWhat about the offer of the kingdom them?\u00a0 Here\u2019s the key thing to understand; it is not cancelled but it has been postponed.\u00a0 We are living in a period of time where the offer has been extended to Israel, yet Israel turned it down, leading to not the cancellation of the kingdom but the postpone\u00adment of the kingdom.\u00a0 And consequently God never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself.\u00a0 The nation of Israel is, in essence, on the shelf; they\u2019ve been on the shelf, they\u2019ve been in timeout, they\u2019ve been sitting on the bench for 2,000 years as they continue on in that state of unbelief.\n\nSo what does God do?\u00a0 He never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself.\u00a0 In His eternal plan it was His intention to raise up the church of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That takes us to number 4.\u00a0 And you see, the moment the nation of Israel turns down the offer of the kingdom you see a shift or a switch in the ministry of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 He is no longer ministering publicly to the nation of Israel but now He is ministering privately to a smaller remnant because they are going to be the foundation stones of this new move of God that is on the horizon, which is not the kingdom of God, which is in a state of postponement, but rather this new move of God that\u2019s coming that\u2019s called the church.\n\nIn Matthew 1-12 Jesus is engaged in public ministry, but once they attribute His miracles to the devil He begins to engage in private ministry to a select few.\u00a0 His focus in the beginning of Matthew\u2019s gospel is the whole nation of Israel but once they attribute His miracles to the devil His focus is on the smaller believing remnant.\u00a0 The purpose of His miracles shifts; in the early part of Matthew\u2019s gospel his miracles prove to the whole nation that He is the Messiah.\u00a0 But once they attribute His miracles to the devil His miracles take on the focus of training this remnant.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom, which is prominent up through chapter 12 disappears from Matthew\u2019s gospel at this point and it\u2019s at this point Jesus starts to reveal an interim program called the age of the church, a period of time that we are living in now; we\u2019ve been living in it in the last 2,000 years while the kingdom is in a state of abeyance and postponement.\n\nIn the first part of Matthew\u2019s Gospel He spoke openly in discourse form; in the second part of Matthew\u2019s Gospel He begins to speak in parables.\u00a0 What is a parable?\u00a0 A parable is a story with a hidden meaning; it\u2019s designed to conceal truth from the nation and reveal it to the Jewish remnant.\n\nAnd consequently we move into number 4, the age of the church; this church is finally born in Acts 2.\u00a0 What is the church?\u00a0 The church consists of all people, regardless of their nationality, Jew or Gentile, who have trusted in the very Messiah that national Israel rejected.\u00a0 The nation of Israel turned down the offer of the kingdom; God never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself and consequently we have a new man, as Paul calls it, a body, a spiritual organism consisting of all people, whether Jew or Gentile, who have trusted in the very Messiah that the nation of Israel rejected.\n\nWhat is the church supposed to be doing?\u00a0 What\u2019s our job?\u00a0 Why are we here?\u00a0 We have three responsibilities.\u00a0 Number 1, glorify God, Ephesians 3:21 [\u201cto Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever.\u00a0 Amen.\u201d].\u00a0 Number 2, edify the saints, Ephesians 4:11-16. [\u201cAnd He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, [12] for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; [13] until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.\u00a0 [14] As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; [15] but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.\u00a0 [16] from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.\u201d]\n\nWe air supposed to edify and bring to maturity the believers so that they can become a complete and mature man.\u00a0 And then what\u2019s our responsibility?\u00a0 Just to sit, soak and sour?\u00a0 No, it is to go out as healthy sheep and fulfill the great commission through world evangelism.\u00a0 Probably the most important thing to understand is that the church is not the kingdom and that is the great amillennial confusion and deception.\u00a0 They want the church to be the kingdom.\n\nLet me explain to you why the church cannot be the kingdom of God.\u00a0 Number 1, the New Testament references to the kingdom of God place the kingdom in the future.\u00a0 How did Jesus teach us to pray?\u00a0 \u201cThy kingdom\u2026\u201d what? \u201ccome.\u201d\u00a0 Now I may have been born in the morning but it wasn\u2019t yesterday morning.\u00a0 Why would I pray for a kingdom to come as the Lord instructed me if it\u2019s already here?\u00a0 The whole concept does not make any sense.\n\nBeyond this, number 2, Jesus is never called the king of the church.\u00a0 I guess I should have run this one by Bruce before we sang that last song about Jesus is our King, we can make mistakes in the body of Christ; it\u2019s not just his mistake but my mistakes.\u00a0 But what you discover is that Jesus was never called the king of the church.\u00a0 Peter puts it this way: Jesus is called, and by right, and in covenanted manner, is the King of the Jews, the King of the Nations, the King of the World, but He is never called the King of the church.\u00a0 When you study New Testament passages related to the church what you\u2019ll discover is Jesus is the groom; we are the bride.\u00a0 Jesus is the head, we are the body.\u00a0 But the king\/subject imagery simply is not dominant in the New Testament.\n\nBeyond this, number 3, Jesus is never said to be ruling from David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 There are many, many theologians that are out to convince people that Jesus, right now, in heaven is ruling from David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 There are two problems with that.\u00a0 Number 1, David\u2019s throne is on the earth, not in heaven; it\u2019s in the city of Jerusalem.\u00a0 If Jesus were ruling from David\u2019s throne you would see a visible, physical Jesus Christ ruling from Jerusalem on David\u2019s throne the way the Scripture describes it.\u00a0 On the contrary, where is Jesus Christ now?\u00a0 Not on David\u2019s throne. We are told in Romans 8:34 that He is at the right hand of the Father.\u00a0 [Romans 8:34, \u201cwho is the one who condemns?\u00a0 Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.\u201d]\n\nNumber 4, the church age that we are living in is an age of prolonged carnality.\u00a0 There are many theologians that deny the reality of a carnal Christian.\u00a0 They don\u2019t believe you can be a carnal Christian.\u00a0 My advice to them is try to go be a pastor for a month or two and then tell me if your doctrine doesn\u2019t change, because the fact of the matter is the church of Jesus Christ is filled with people that are saved, that simply have not grown up.\u00a0 In fact, the book of Hebrews, chapter 5, verse 12, says, \u201cFor though by this time,\u201d that\u2019s speaking of a long period of time, \u201cyou ought to be teachers, but you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God\u2026.\u201d\n\nJohn Walvoord, the great prophecy scholar says this: \u201cThe Christian era has been no golden age of righteousness, nor has the church conquered the world.\u00a0 It is more accurate to recognize that the world, to a large degree, has possessed the church.\u201d\u00a0 But you see, in the kingdom of God there won\u2019t be rebellion, there will not be carnality, there will be perfect justice. When sin is committed it will be immediately and instantaneously dealt with.\n\nAnother reason we are not in the kingdom, I think this is number 5, we preach a different gospel, don\u2019t we, than what John was preaching.\u00a0 What was John and Jesus and the twelve preaching?\u00a0 They were saying, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 What gospel do we preach?\u00a0 Acts 16:30-31 says this:\u00a0 \u201cAnd after he brought them out, he said, \u2018Sirs, what must I do to be saved?\u2019\u00a0 [31] They said\u201d to him what? \u201cBelieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, and your household.\u201d\u00a0 There was never any offer of a kingdom to that Philippian jailer.\n\nDwight Pentecost puts it this way:\u00a0 \u201cThe new command of Christ, \u2018you shall be My witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and unto the uttermost parts of the earth\u201d does not coincide with the gospel of the kingdom which precedes the institution of the kingdom.\u00a0 Beyond that, we are called the heirs of the kingdom.\u00a0 James 2:5 says this: \u201cListen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?\u201d\n\nPeters puts it this way: \u201cIf the church is the kingdom and believers are now in it, why designate them as heirs of the kingdom?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 See, we are citizens of the kingdom; we are heirs of the kingdom that\u2019s coming; we represent kingdom values on foreign soil, but that doesn\u2019t mean that the kingdom has arrived yet.\u00a0 We are simply ambassadors of that coming kingdom.\n\nBeyond that, the church, maybe not so much in America but around the world is suffering dramatically.\u00a0 John 16:33 says this: \u201cIn the world you will have tribulation, but take heart; I have overcome the world.\u201d\u00a0 When the kingdom comes God\u2019s people will no longer suffer. Peter says the church, instead of being represented as a kingdom is held up as a struggling, suffering people.\n\nAnd a final reason why the church cannot be the kingdom is because Satan is running loose, isn\u2019t he?\u00a0 In the kingdom the devil himself will be bound in a place called the abyss, for a thousand years. That\u2019s described in Revelation 20:2-3.\u00a0 [\u201cAnd he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; [3] and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.\u201d]\n\nThe amillennialist will tell you flat out that Satan is bound right now.\u00a0 If that\u2019s the case then he must be on a pretty long leash, because Satan\u00a0 is wreaking havoc, not only in our world, Satan is wreaking havoc in the church of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 In fact, Paul warns us in Ephesians 4:26-27, \u201c\u2026do not let the sun go down on your anger, [27] and do not give the devil an opportunity.\u201d\u00a0 Why is it, if Satan is bound now that we are to put on the full armor of God?\n\nWhen you compare what the Scripture says about the kingdom to the modern age of the church it simply cannot be said in any way, shape or form that the church is the kingdom of God.\u00a0 But what happens to the church when the church gets confused on this?\u00a0 They get away from their priorities.\u00a0 What are our priorities?\u00a0 Glorifying God, edifying the saints, fulfilling the great commission.\u00a0 If I begin to understand that the church is the kingdom of God those priorities disappear.\u00a0 The priorities become bringing in kingdom conditions.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why from many pulpits around this country there is so much talk about social justice, bringing in social justice, bringing in those conditions that are prophesied in the Old Testament.\n\nBeloved, I\u2019m in favor of political activism, as being salt and light.\u00a0 I am in favor of being involved in culture as a preservative. I am being in favor of being involved in the culture to slow down the progress of evil.\u00a0 But if you\u2019re asking me to get involved in those activities, right or left, for the express purpose of establishing the kingdom of God on the earth, count me out, because if I got involved in those types of things I would be leading the church into doing something that only Jesus Himself can do.\u00a0 Yes, we can be a light to a dark world and improve things here and there but the general trajectory of this world, as Paul tells us, is from bad to worse, men waxing worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u00a0 [2 Timothy 3:13, \u201cBut evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.\u201d]\n\nAnd that general downward trajectory will not be altered until Jesus Christ Himself alters it through the establishment of the kingdom, a job He never gave to the church.\u00a0 Show me your eschatology and I\u2019ll show you your ecclesiology.\u00a0 Show me what you think about the end and I\u2019ll show you what you think about what the church ought to be doing.\u00a0 The church is all about reaching and teaching.\u00a0 The church is all about evangelism and discipleship.\u00a0 The church, in certain instances can restrain evil but in no way, shape or form are we to be involved in the establishment of the kingdom of God on planet earth.\n\nAnd so that is our function; that is our task.\u00a0 But you know what?\u00a0 The day will come, I don\u2019t know when, that God will be finished with the church in the sense that its earthly mission will terminate.\u00a0 There is a full number that are supposed to come in in the age of the church. Once that number is reached the body of Christ will be complete, the bride of Christ will be complete and God will, through what we call the rapture or the translation of the church, take the church out of the world.\n\nAnd then what does God do?\u00a0 Has God ever forgotten about these kingdom promises?\u00a0 He has not because one of the things God cannot do is He cannot lie.\u00a0 Titus 1:2 says this: \u201cIn the hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 If God has made these promises they will come to pass.\u00a0 Once the church is removed there will be a re-offering of the kingdom to the nation of Israel in the events that we call the great tribulation period.\n\nMatthew 24:14 says, \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom,\u201d that is the exact same offer that was made by Jesus, John the Baptist, the Twelve, and the Seventy, \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.\u201d\u00a0 The nation of Israel will be given another opportunity to respond to the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 That opportunity will be just as real as it was when Christ was here on planet earth. They get a second chance.\n\nAnd how many of you know that God is a God of second chances?\u00a0 Probably some of my favorite verses in the whole Bible is in the book of Jonah, where it says \u201cthe Word of God came to Jonah a second time.\u201d\u00a0 [Jonah 3:1]\u00a0 Isn\u2019t that great, \u201ca second time,\u201d after all of this season of rebellion and disobedience God never forgot what He sought to accomplish through His choice prophet.\n\nAnd may I just say to you that the world looks at the nation of Israel as a nuisance.\u00a0 The Christian church looks at the nation of Israel as a nuisance, a bunch of unbelieving Jews in the sands of the Middle East, and may I just say to you that is not how God looks at the nation of Israel.\u00a0 They are an elected, covenanted nation, a nation that God Himself made promises to which can never be forgotten.\u00a0 That offer is extended to you, the nation of Israel, and guess what?\u00a0 This time they get it right.\u00a0 They enthrone Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Yet, it will take the events of the great tribulation period to achieve this.\n\nJeremiah 30:7 says, \u201cAlas! For that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob\u2019s distress, but he will be saved from it.\u201d\u00a0 Do you want some good theology?\u00a0 Here it is: God knocks us down so we look up.\u00a0 That\u2019s how God got hold of all of us and God is about read to knock Israel in her pride down once again, but this time they will acknowledge Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Jesus says in Matthew 23:37-39, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her winds, and you were unwilling.\u00a0 [38] Behold, you house is being left to you desolate!\u00a0 [39] For I say to you, from now on you will not see Me,\u201d and praise the Lord the verse doesn\u2019t stop there, from now on I will say to you, \u00a0\u201cyou will not see Me until,\u201d I love the \u201cuntils\u201d in the Bible, \u201cuntil you say, \u2018Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!\u201d\n\nI came to you the first time, I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings but the problem wasn\u2019t Me, the problem was you; you wouldn\u2019t have Me. So behold, you are moving off into a season of discipline which will even involve the destruction of your temple and I, during this time of discipline will be at work through another spiritual man called the church.\n\nBut once you acknowledge Me as the Messiah, by chanting a Messianic psalm, \u201cBlessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD,\u201d which is Psalm 118:26, then<\/em> the kingdom will come.\u00a0 Do we understand that we could win, in the age of the church, every human being to Christ and yet if tiny Israel remains in a state of unbelief, with the whole Christianized, the kingdom of God cannot come.\u00a0 Conversely, you can have the whole world move into unbelief and yet tiny Israel acknowledges Christ as their King and there will be the establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth.\n\nAnd once this offer is re-extended to the nation of Israel in the tribulation period, after the church has been removed and after that offer is accepted the authority of planet earth will be transferred away from the devil\u2019s grasp into the grasp of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Revelation 11:15 says it the best: \u201cThe kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ; and He will reign forever and ever.\u201d\n\nWhen you study the book of Revelation have you noticed that so many of the judgments sound like the book of Exodus?\u00a0 We have sores in the sixth plague of Exodus and the first bowl judgment in Revelation.\u00a0 Rivers to blood, first plague in the book of Exodus, third bowl judgment in the book of Revelation.\u00a0 Darkness is in the ninth plague of the book of Exodus and the fifth bowl judgment of the book of Revelation.\u00a0 Hail is in the seventh plague of the book of Exodus and the seventh bowl judgment in the book of Revelation.\u00a0 Why the parallels?\u00a0 Because in the book of Exodus God was taking His people, Israel, out of 400 years of bondage.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the Exodus was about; they had been there for 400 years.\u00a0 Think about that, our country has only been here a little over 200 years.\u00a0 Think about being in bondage in Egypt for 400 years and God takes you out.\u00a0 And that\u2019s small pickings compared to the book of Revelation because you know what God is doing in the book of Revelation?\u00a0 He\u2019s not taking an nation out of 400 years of bondage; He is taking a planet, He is taking the earth itself out of the bondage that this planet has been in ever since the fall in Eden.\n\nRomans 8 tells us that the earth itself is in travail and groaning because of the satanic bondage that it\u2019s in.\u00a0 And how wonderful it is to learn of a time in history where the devil\u2019s grasp on planet earth is taken away.\u00a0 The church, through all of its programs, cannot get this done, but Israel\u2019s response to the offer of the kingdom in the tribulation period will be the triggering event.\u00a0 And as this happens the kingdom of God, this long awaited kingdom that we are to pray for, will be established on planet earth. Daniel saw it as a stone cut without human hands that destroys in an instant the kingdoms of man and that stone grows and grows and grows and grows until it fills the whole earth.\n\nIn our charts that we use we have the rapture, which concludes the church age, followed by the tribulation period, where Israel responds to the offer of the kingdom leading to the return of Jesus and the establishment of the kingdom of God on planet earth.\n\nWe have Armageddon followed by a second coming of Christ, followed by that glorious one thousand year reign of Christ that we call the kingdom of God.\u00a0 The kingdom is not now; the kingdom is yet future, and consequently we are to pray \u201cThy kingdom come.\u201d\n\nAnd you look at me and you say what is this strange, weird doctrine you\u2019re talking about; I have been going to church my whole life and I have never heard anything like this. May I just say to you that the way I am talking is exactly how the church of Jesus Christ taught and thought for the first 200 years of its existence.\u00a0 What I am saying was mainstream by the generations that followed the apostles.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a quote from Justin Martyr, he says, \u201cBut I and every other\u201d very early church father, \u201cI and every other completely orthodox Christian feel certain that there will be a resurrection of the flesh, followed by a thousand years in the rebuilt, embellished, and enlarged city of Jerusalem as was announced by the prophets Ezekiel, Isaiah and others.\u201d\n\nThe temple will be rebuilt, Jerusalem will be the focus of the earth again; a thousand year reign is coming.\u00a0 I believe it and Justin Martyr says every orthodox Christian believes it as well.\u00a0 In other words, if you were to deny what I am saying in the first 200 years of church history you would be thought of as unorthodox.\n\nPhilp Schaff, the well-respected church historian writes this as he is commenting on the first 200 years of the church.\u00a0 He says:: \u201cThe most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm,\u201d now the Greek word for a thousand is chilia<\/em>, so the early premillennialists, which is the system I\u2019m describing, were not called premillennialists, which is a Latin word, but they were called chiliasts.\u00a0 \u201cThe most striking point in the eschatology of the ante-Nicene age is the prominent chiliasm, or millenarianism, that is the belief of a visible reign of Christ in glory on earth with the risen saints for a thousand years, before the general resurrection and judgment.\u00a0 It was indeed not the doctrine of the church embodied in any creed or form of devotion, but a widely current opinion of distinguished teachers, such as Barnabas, Papias, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Methodius, and Lactantius.\u201d\n\nAnd there was a school that promulgated these views in Antioch of Syria, which is at the northern tip of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 These were, what we could call, literalists.\u00a0 We might even call them fundamentalists; they said God means what He says and says what He means; if the Bible says there\u2019s going to be a literal thousand year reign of Christ, my goodness, that\u2019s exactly what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0 And for the first 200 years in this school at Antioch they promulgated this doctrine.\u00a0 And so these things that I am saying here are not strange things.\u00a0 In fact, if you take the time to look at our Sugar Land Bible Church position statements you\u2019ll find the same stuff.\n\nWe write, \u201cAs a framework for interpreting and teaching prophecy, we hold to\u00a0 a pre-tribulational,\u201d that would be the church removed before the tribulation, \u201ca pre-tribulational, premillennial position\u201d\u00a0 What does it mean to be premillennial?\u00a0 It\u2019s different than being an amillennialist.\u00a0 A premillennialist believes Jesus Christ comes back first, and the kingdom follows.\u00a0 We cannot, beloved, have the kingdom without the King, it\u2019s an impossibility.\u00a0 Yet the amillennialist teaches that we can have the kingdom without the King.\n\nDo you know what happens when we start thinking that we can set up the kingdom of God without the King?\u00a0 Crazy social experiments begin to take place, like the one launched by John Calvin when he politically took over Geneva, and he began to put on trial people that disagreed with him theologically.\u00a0 We could talk about the Salem witch trials; we could talk about the Crusades.\u00a0 We could talk about any number of things where the church has gotten out of the priorities of God because we have not carefully thought through or developed our eschatology.\n\nThe reason I am passionate about this subject is if we understand what our role is we will continue being what God has called us to be, because we lose power when the church becomes some sort of grotesque concept that God never envisioned.\u00a0 The church has power when it functions under the priorities given to it by our head, Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The church, when it gets outside of the priorities of God is emptied of its power.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why there is this great deception that is on, launched by the devil himself, to confuse the church about this coming kingdom.\n\n \n\nWhat happened to the school at Antioch?\u00a0 Well, they were eclipsed by another school, which is that bottom circle in Alexandria.\u00a0 Alexandria eclipsed Antioch.\u00a0 Alessandria, led by people such as Augustine, Origen, began to spiritualize the prophecies of the kingdom.\u00a0 They began to say those prophecies are not literal.\u00a0 They will simply repackage them and make it sound as if they\u2019re happening in the church today.\u00a0 Augustine came forward with his first formal treatment on amillennialism, called The City of God,<\/em> and from the fourth century onward the church has been completely confused on this topic.\u00a0 And it didn\u2019t start crawling out of the amillennial deception until around 1800 A.D.\n\nAnd how tragic it is, how problematic it is to hear the church using these expressions, kingdom living, kingdom work, building the kingdom, bringing in the kingdom, we\u2019re a colony of the kingdom, we\u2019re a sneak peak of the kingdom.\u00a0 The future, we\u2019re told, has broken into the present, already not yet, inaugurated eschatology, realized eschatology.\u00a0 Those are just buzzwords for the same amillennial deception.\u00a0 That\u2019s all they are.\u00a0 And yet when you listen to Christian vernacular you hear these words constantly.\u00a0 Brian McLaren of the emergent church, talks about how the church is the kingdom of God here and now.\n\nWell Andy, you like The Purpose Driven Life<\/em> don\u2019t you? I mean, you would never criticize that, 40 Days of Purpose, I mean, that\u2019s real popular, that\u2019s almost as popular as the Bible.\u00a0 I cannot get on board with that.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Here is the progenitor of the movement, Rick Warren.\u00a0 \u201cI stand before you confidently right now and say to you that God is going to use you to change the world\u2026 I\u2019m looking at a stadium full of men right now who are telling God that they will whatever it takes to establish God\u2019s Kingdom on earth,\u201d once you start talking like that count me out.\n\nOr Russell Moore, the President of Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, who replaced Richard Land.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Russell Moore says \u201cThe locus of the kingdom of God in this age is within the church, where Jesus rules as king.\u00a0 As we live our lives together, we see the transforming power of the gospel and the in breaking of the future kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nWell, that was an intro, now for the conclusion.\u00a0 You guys are glad I didn\u2019t say now for the body of the sermon.\u00a0 John 18:36, \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world.\u00a0 If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm.\u201d\u00a0 Given this framework that I have given you how would we interpret Christ\u2019s statement here in John 18:36.\u00a0 Three points, very quickly.\u00a0 Number 1, the offer of the kingdom is off the table at this point.\u00a0 It\u2019s been off the table ever since Matthew 12.\u00a0 Christ is saying there is a kingdom coming one day, but it is no eminent threat to Rome at this time, although you have accused Me of insurrection.\n\nThe second point to consider is the Greek word nyn<\/em>, translated now; \u201cMy kingdom,\u201d a better translation would be \u201cis not now established.\u201d\u00a0 Christ was not denying the kingdom\u2019s ultimate arrival upon the earth, but only denying its immediate arrival.\u00a0 The New American Standard Bible I don\u2019t think does a very good job translating this; I think it shows up more clearly in the King James Version or the New King James Version but if you look at the Greek text in that last clause you will see the word \u201cnow.\u201d\u00a0 Jesus is not making a statement that there will never be a kingdom the way the amillennialist takes it; He is making a statement that that kingdom is not now; it is no eminent threat to Rome, something that He wanted them to understand, having accused Him of insurrection.\n\nAnd then finally, number three, the Greek preposition, ek<\/em>, translated \u201cof,\u201d that does show up in the New American Standard Bible, the Greek preposition, ek<\/em>, translated \u201cof,\u201d indicating origin or source.\u00a0 It will come down from heaven to the earth rather than originate from the earth ultimately at Christ\u2019s Second Coming.\u201d\n\n \n\nChrist is making a statement of where the kingdom comes from.\u00a0 Once the kingdom comes to the earth where does it come from?\u00a0 It comes from where?\u00a0 Heaven.\u00a0 That\u2019s why Jesus, John the Baptist and the twelve said very clearly to first century Israel, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of\u201d what? \u201cheaven is at hand.\u201d\n\nDaniel 2:44 puts it this way: \u201cIn the days of those kings,\u201d speaking of the events surrounding the dissolution of the empires of man and the establishment of God\u2019s kingdom upon the earth at the end of the tribulation period, Daniel 2:44 says, \u201cIn the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed.\u201d\u00a0 \u201cFrom,\u201d which is a translation of the Greek preposition ek<\/em> is simply a statement of origin, or it\u2019s simply a statement of source.\n\nWhat is Jesus saying in John 18:36?\u00a0 He\u2019s not denying a future kingdom; He\u2019s simply saying that the offer of the kingdom, since it\u2019s late in My ministry, is off the table, number 1.\u00a0 Number 2, the kingdom is not now going to be established because we are entering into a prolonged period of time called the age of the church.\u00a0 And number 3, once that kingdom comes it is coming from heaven to the earth.\u00a0 The rule of God in heaven which is never violated or second guessed is going to be established on planet earth for the 1,000 year reign of Christ.\n\nMy question is, which citizenship do you belong to?\u00a0 Are you a citizen of this world system that is disintegrating?\u00a0 Or are you a citizen of the coming kingdom which, as the book of Hebrews tells us, cannot be shaken?\u00a0 And how do you transfer your citizenship from one to the other?\u00a0 By simply responding to the gospel, which is to believe.\u00a0 We call the gospel \u201cgospel\u201d because the gospel means good news. It\u2019s good news because Jesus paid everything on our behalf.\u00a0 All of the hindrances to me having a relationship with God have been paid for, thanks to the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 I do nothing of my own accord but receive what He has done for me as a free gift.\u00a0 And that only happens one way, by faith; to believe, for \u201cwithout faith it is impossible to please God.\u201d \u00a0[Hebrews 11:6]\n\nIn the quietness of our minds and hearts trust in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 It\u2019s a transaction that happens in the quietness of the mind and the soul.\u00a0 It is not a matter of walking an aisle, raising a hand, joining a church, giving money, it\u2019s a matter of something that happens between you and the Lord; you trust in what He has done.\u00a0 And the moment that happens your citizenship changes in an instant, away from the collapsing systems of man into a kingdom that we become ambassadors for that is yet on the horizon, which can never be shaken.\u00a0 Even as I am talking I would encourage you, if you are unclear on your eternity, the best you know how and understand that you trust in what Jesus has done.\u00a0 If it\u2019s something that you have done or are doing then on the authority of the Word of God you have just altered your eternal destiny.\u00a0 I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\u00a0 Shall we pray.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t