{"id":19188,"date":"2017-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-22T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-008\/"},"modified":"2017-02-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-02-22T06:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-008","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-008\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 008"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19188","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-matthew","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 008","sermon_date":"20170222","sermon_month":"2","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4392,"sermon_slides":4393,"sermon_mp3":4394,"sermon_id":"22217184661","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"3:2","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 The Coming Kingdom\n\n2-22-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 3:2\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 8\n\nWhy don\u2019t we open up to 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 and then once we\u2019re finished with that we\u2019re going to be going into the New Testament, into Matthew 3:2.\u00a0 If you\u2019ve been tracking with us we\u2019re continuing to move through this doctrine of the kingdom and really the first part of the class is trying to figure out what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 That is a bus ride with 17 stops on it and we\u2019ve made a few stops.\u00a0 We started in Eden and that\u2019s where God made a decision to rule through a man, Adam. And that reign was lost with the fall of man.\u00a0 Satan becomes the god of this age and so the goal of history is how that structure is going to be brought back, where God rules through a man over the earth.\n\nAnd from Eden we went into God\u2019s covenant with Abraham where we learn that God took a nation, He formed it, He created it.\u00a0 Israel, to my knowledge is the only nation that\u2019s directly created by God.\u00a0 When the prophet Isaiah describes the creation of Israel he uses the same Hebrew words that you find in the creation story in Genesis.\u00a0 And Israel becomes very special because it\u2019s through Israel the kingdom program is going to come.\u00a0 So God\u2019s purpose was to bless Israel and through Israel the world would be blessed.\u00a0 And He gave the nation of Israel three major blessings and those are land, seed and blessing. And Israel is the owner and she always will be the owner of those blessings.\n\nThe third stop on the bus ride is the Mosaic Covenant, where we go 600 years into the future from the time of Abraham where God basically entered into a covenant with Moses and He put into that covenant if\/then language, if you do this then I will do that.\u00a0 So that covenant doesn\u2019t give the nation of Israel ownership of her blessings; she already has those because of the Abrahamic Covenant but it gives the nation of Israel what?\u00a0 Possession or enjoyment of those blessings.\n\nAnd from there we took the fourth stop on the trip which is the divided kingdom and here\u2019s where we learned that after the reign of Solomon God divided the kingdom up through discipline, you have the ten northern tribes and the two southern tribes.\u00a0 The ten northern tribes are scattered by the Assyrians in 722 B.C.\u00a0 Only the southern tribes remain; the most important southern tribe, there\u2019s two, Benjamin and Judah, which one is the most important?\u00a0 Judah, because the Davidic kings all reigned in Judah.\u00a0 So the Davidic lineage is going to be continued through Judah, and of course we have that prophecy going all the way back to the time of Jacob where Jacob made some predictions over his sons just prior to his own death and he said the Messiah is going to come from which tribe?\u00a0 Judah.\u00a0 You\u2019ll find that in Genesis 49:10.\u00a0 [Genesis 49:10, \u201cThe scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes, And to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.\u201d]\n\nSo that\u2019s why God is protecting Judah.\u00a0 Only tiny Judah remains in terms of God\u2019s kingdom program after the divided kingdom.\u00a0 And tiny Judah is taken into captivity by the Babylonians and this starts a time period called the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 And this is where God raises up the prophet Daniel to explain that the times of the Gentiles started when the captivity started.\u00a0 The times of the Gentiles will end after the reign of the antichrist in the distant future with the personal return of Jesus Christ to the earth to set up His kingdom.\u00a0 So during this period called the times of the Gentiles, and we actually are still in the times of the Gentiles now, don\u2019t expect the kingdom to come.\u00a0 The stone cut without human hands, which is the kingdom that Daniel saw in Daniel 2, only is going to take place after the empire of the antichrist (which is yet future) runs its course.\n\nSo the kingdom today is not in a state of cancellation but in a state of postponement because Israel has never acknowledged her responsibilities under the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 So today Israel remains owner but not enjoyer of her blessings.\n\nAnd the sixth stop on the bus ride is the Old Testament prophets and that\u2019s where we were the last two weeks, and this is where the prophets function is a light shining in a dark place.\u00a0 So while the kingdom is in postponement God raises up these prophets to give us hope or a sketch, if you will, of what the kingdom is going to be like once it comes.\u00a0 If I remember right we went through about fourteen characteristics of the coming kingdom taken directly from the writings of the prophets.\u00a0 And so it\u2019s the prophets that really start to get out the paint brush and start to paint a portrait of the beauty that the earth will be in once the kingdom arrives.\n\nSo this takes us to number 7, the postexilic time period.\u00a0 I\u2019ll just make a few comments on number 7 and we\u2019re going to spend most of our time tonight on number 8.\u00a0 We\u2019re almost out of the Old Testament period and we\u2019re going to be moving into the New Testament tonight.\u00a0 But the nation of Israel, in particular Judah, is in captivity for seventy years.\u00a0 Now why did God put them into captivity?\u00a0 Because they had the Mosaic Covenant and part of the Mosaic Covenant dealt with curses for disobedience.\u00a0 And all the way back in the time of Moses, Deuteronomy 28:49-50 says that this is how God is going to discipline His people; He\u2019s going to bring a nation against them whose tongue they don\u2019t even understand and He\u2019s going to uproot them from their land.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 28:49-50, \u201cThe LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, [50] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.\u201d]\n\nSo that\u2019s why God brought the Assyrians against the northern kingdom in 722 B.C., about 700 years after Moses spoke these words in the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 And then about 136 years later, 586 B.C. comes and the remaining kingdom of Judah in the south is taken into Babylonian captivity.\u00a0 And this time period that the nation of Israel is now in, as I mentioned before, is a time period essentially called the times of the Gentiles.\n\nBut before we get to that how many years\u2026 I think I might have asked this already, did Judah go into captivity for?\u00a0 Seventy years.\u00a0 And you\u2019re going to find that figure in Jeremiah 25:11, you\u2019ll see the seventy year prediction.\u00a0 And you\u2019ll find it in Jeremiah 29:10.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 25:11, \u201c'This whole land will be a desolation and a horror, and these nations will serve the king of Babylon seventy years.\u201d\u00a0 Jeremiah 29:10, \u201cFor thus says the LORD, \u2018When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place.\u201d]\n\nAnd most people know that Israel went into captivity for seventy years but most people don\u2019t understand why it was seventy years.\u00a0 Why wasn\u2019t it 50 years? \u00a0Why wasn\u2019t it 100 years?\u00a0 And the answer really relates to Leviticus 25:1-7 where the nation of Israel was to, just like in the work week we\u2019re supposed to work six days and rest on the seventh; that same pattern was to work with their land.\u00a0 They were to work the land six years and they were to allow the land to have a sabbath on the seventh year.\n\n[Leviticus 25:1-7, \u201cThe LORD then spoke to Moses at Mount Sinai, saying, [2] \u2018Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, \u2018When you come into the land which I shall give you, then the land shall have a sabbath to the LORD. [3] \u2018Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in its crop, [4] but during the seventh year the land shall have a sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD; you shall not sow your field nor prune your vineyard. [5] Your harvest\u2019s after growth you shall not reap, and your grapes of untrimmed vines you shall not gather; the land shall have a sabbatical year. [6]All of you shall have the sabbath products<\/em> of the land for food; yourself, and your male and female slaves, and your hired man and your foreign resident, those who live as aliens with you. [7] Even your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall have all its crops to eat.\u201d]\n\nAnd what happened in the history of the nation of Israel is the nation of Israel at certain times just decided to ignore what God said.\u00a0 So they transgressed the land sabbath about 70 times so God says okay, every year you\u2019re not going to allow the land to have its rest I will kick you out of the land, then it will rest.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we have this seventy year captivity; it\u2019s not an arbitrary number at all.\n\nNow if you look at 2 Chronicles 36:20-21 you\u2019ll see it all right there.\u00a0 It says, \u201cThose who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia,\u201d in other words they were to go into captivity into the Babylonians but they were to come back seventy years later, and then verses 21 says, \u201cto fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, [until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.\u201d]\u00a0 And I gave you those two references where Jeremiah predicted that the captivity would last seventy years, Jeremiah 25:11 predicts it and Jeremiah 29:10 predicts it.\u00a0 But then 2 Chronicles 36 goes on and it says, \u201c[to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah,] until the land had enjoyed its\u201d what? \u201cits sabbaths.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s an allusion back to Leviticus 25.\n\nSo Israel was told all the way back in the time of Moses let the land rest on the seventh year and the nation decides not to do that for seventy years.\u00a0 And so God forced His own people out of the land so the land of Israel would have its rest and the seventy years would be made up.\u00a0 So what you start to discover when\u00a0 you read things like this is God is a God of mathematical precision and exactness.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why the seventy year captivity lasted exactly seventy years, not sixty-five years, not a hundred years but seventy years.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reason behind it.\n\nSo what happens is Judah goes into captivity in Babylon about 350 miles to the east, they\u2019re there for seventy years, they go into captivity under the head of gold, Babylon.\u00a0 But then Babylon is overthrown by the Persians, which is the chest and arms in this stature, chest and arms of silver.\u00a0 And does anybody remember the exact chapter in the Bible where the Persians would overthrow the Babylonians?\u00a0 I\u2019ll give\u00a0 you a big hint, we\u2019re going to be studying it on Sunday morning and it\u2019s one chapter beyond where we are on Sunday morning\u2014Daniel 5, which is the handwriting on the wall chapter.\n\nSo the head of gold, as Daniel saw it in Daniel 2, which represents Babylon, would give way to the chest and arms of silver, which represents Persia.\u00a0 And here is just a list of the various empires that Daniel saw; he saw Babylon rising to power, in fact Babylon was the nation that had taken him and his three friends into captivity.\u00a0 But then he saw the head of gold being replaced by the chest and arms of silver.\u00a0 But when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came against Judah he came against Judah in three waves; the first wave was 605 B.C. and the king on the throne at that time was Jehoiakim, and this is the captivity that Daniel was taken away in, in wave one.\u00a0 So Daniel and a few of the princes were taken away.\u00a0 And as we\u2019ve explained Sunday mornings what Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is doing is he\u2019s brainwashing the best and the brightest and if he can brainwash them and get them on his team he can talk the rest of the population into peaceably coming along as well, the Jewish population.\n\nThen Nebuchadnezzar came back again in 597, and I have all the Scriptures where you can find these three waves.\u00a0 [605, 2 Kings 24:1, Daniel 1:1. 597, 2 Kings 24:10-16, Ezekiel 1:1-2. 586, 2 Kings 25:1-2, Ezekiel 33:21.]\u00a0 The reigning king on David\u2019s throne at that time was Jehoiachin and Ezekiel is taken in that second wave.\u00a0 Then Nebuchadnezzar came a third time, the last reigning king on David\u2019s throne was Zedekiah and this is where Nebuchadnezzar finished the job.\u00a0 He destroyed the city, he destroyed the sanctuary, the temple was destroyed at this time and it\u2019s during this era that the times of the Gentiles started.\u00a0 The Shekinah glory of God had left the Jewish temple and there was no longer a king reigning on David\u2019s throne and that\u2019s why God raised up Daniel, to help Israel, or Judah specifically understand that the nation is going to be trampled down by various Gentile powers all the way to the Second Advent, the first being Babylon and the second being Medo-Persia.\n\nNow once the Medes and the Persians overthrow the Babylonians in Daniel 5, and that happened about 539 B.C., God uses the Persians to direct the nation back into their homeland after the seventy years of captivity had ended.\u00a0 And this is a copy of the Cyrus Cylinder.\u00a0 Cyrus was the king that basically conquered Babylon and it was under his leadership and subsequent kings in Persia that Judah was allowed to g back into the homeland.\n\nAnd what you have to understand is Isaiah predicted Cyrus by name 150 years in advance.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to look at it tonight but if you just jot down Isaiah 44:28-45:1 you\u2019ll see Isaiah 150 years in advance naming the king that\u2019s going to bring Judah back into their homeland.\u00a0 So that\u2019s a staggering prophecy; it\u2019s so staggering liberals don\u2019t know how to handle this and so they just say well, Isaiah obviously didn\u2019t write that, that was written by another guy claiming to be Isaiah, called Deutero-Isaiah or Trito-Isaiah or however or whatever you want to do with that.\n\nI mean, this would be like saying a hundred and fifty years in advance Donald Trump, and naming his name, is going to be President of the United States.\u00a0 A hundred and fifty years ago no one even knows who Donald Trump is, he hadn\u2019t even been born yet.\u00a0 And lo and behold here he comes into power and fulfills the prophecy.\u00a0 That\u2019s the best explanation I can give that\u2019s on par with what Isaiah would receive from God there in Isaiah 44:28.\u00a0 [Isaiah 44:28, \u201cIt is I who says of Cyrus, \u2018He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.\u2019 And he declares of Jerusalem, \u2018She will be built,\u2019 And of the temple, \u2018Your foundation will be laid.\u201d\u2019]\n\nSo Cyrus is actually one of the good guys in history and it\u2019s under Cyrus and various Persian kings that those in Judah go back into the homeland after the 70 year captivity was over.\u00a0 So just as Nebuchadnezzar had taken them away in three deportations, under the Persians the Jews go back into the land in three returns.\u00a0\u00a0 The first return is described in Ezra 1-6.\u00a0 The second return under Artaxerxes, the Persian king that followed Cyrus, is described in Ezra 7-10.\u00a0 And I have the Scriptures and the dates where you can look all these things up.\u00a0 The third return takes place, according to the book of Nehemiah, under Artaxerxes.\n\nSo the first time they return is to rebuild the temple; the second return they\u2019re adorning the temple and reforming the people.\u00a0 And then in the third return, as recorded in the book of Nehemiah they\u2019re rebuilding the wall.\u00a0 So this is all taking place in the Persian time period.\n\nNow what modern nation today is a descendant of Persia?\u00a0 Iran!\u00a0 And that\u2019s what\u2019s so sad about the Iranians today going into this shite Islamic mindset where they\u2019re trying to\u2026 the leadership anyway is trying to wipe Israel off the map and things like that.\u00a0 This is a group of people that have lost sight of their history.\u00a0 God originally raised up the Persians, not to be a curse to the nation of Israel but to be a blessing.\u00a0 So God said I\u2019m going to use Cyrus even though Cyrus doesn\u2019t know me.\u00a0 He says that in Isaiah 45:4.\u00a0 [Isaiah 45:4, \u201cFor the sake of Jacob My servant, and Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor though you have not known Me.\u201d]\n\nSo God can use people in positions of power even though they don\u2019t have a personal relationship with Him.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we\u2019re called, as Christians, to be praying for our political leaders because God can use them and direct them.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He did with Cyrus, in Ezra 1-6; that\u2019s what He did with Artaxerxes in Ezra 7-10, and that\u2019s what He did with Artaxerxes again as recorded in the book of Nehemiah.\n\nSo as you continue to move on through history, once the Jews are in the land they\u2019re in the land for about five centuries after the return; five centuries is a long time before Jesus showed up.\u00a0 And this is all described in Daniel\u2019s vision that he say, Daniel 2; he saw the chest and arms of silver being replaced by the belly and thighs of bronze, which would be Greece.\u00a0 And then you keep moving through and he saw the two legs of iron which would represent Rome.\u00a0 So the Persians basically ruled over the land of Israel after the Jews returned, from about 530 to around 331.\u00a0 Then came the Greeks, Alexander the Great and they ruled over the land of Israel from about 331-363 B.C.\u00a0 And after the Greeks came forth the Roman Empire.\u00a0 The Romans came into the land of Israel, probably about 63 B.C.\u00a0 63 years before the time of Christ,\u00a0 under the General Pompeii.\u00a0 And they continued to rule over the land of Israel until the Romans finally kicked the Jews out of the land in A.D. 70.\n\nSo even though Israel has a long residency in the land, for about five centuries before Jesus Christ ever showed up, what I want to show you is the times of the Gentiles kept right on going.\u00a0 Israel, the nation, kept being subjugated by these Gentile powers.\u00a0 And so by the time Jesus shows up the empire that\u2019s in power is Rome.\u00a0 Rome was really no friend of the Jews, I mean, the Jews hated Rome.\u00a0 It was Rome that put the nation of Israel under heavy taxation.\u00a0 That\u2019s why, if you were a tax collector you would be looked at by the Jewish people as really the scum of the earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s how we would look at drug pushers today, or pornographers, or abortionists, people like that, just the low of the low, because if you were a Jew who was a tax collector it meant you were a traitor because you were working for Rome to collect taxes.\u00a0 And it also meant that you were a traitor to your people and it also meant that you were a thief because you could extract whatever you wanted from the Jewish people for taxes for Rome, but then you could take any additional amount you wanted to line your own pockets with.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why it\u2019s just amazing that the Lord chose Matthew, a tax collector, to write the opening book of the New Testament, because Matthew had been given a touch by God\u2019s grace and that\u2019s why you have the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector, up in the tree and Jesus comes and manifests grace to him, and says, \u201cFor the Son of Man has come to seek and save that which was lost.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 19:10]\n\nThat\u2019s a little bit about Rome.\u00a0 There was a heavy tax burden and also the Romans at this time had taken away from the nation of Israel the right to execute their own criminals.\u00a0 There\u2019s a reference to that in John 18:31.\u00a0 [John 18:31, \u201cSo Pilate said to them, \u2018Take Him yourselves, and judge Him according to your law.\u2019 The Jews said to him, \u2018We are not permitted to put anyone to death.\u201d\u2019 And this is why Jesus died on a cross.\u00a0 If the Jews had killed Christ they would have stoned Him to death but they couldn\u2019t stone Him to death because the Romans, through the fourth empire here during the times of the Gentiles had taken away from the Jews the power of capital punishment and consequently Jesus had to die on a cross rather than be stoned to death.\u00a0 And that in and of itself is the outworking of God\u2019s purposes because how do the Old Testament prophets predict the death of Christ?\u00a0 That He would be pierced.\n\nAnd think of how outlandish those prophecies seemed at the time.\u00a0 You don\u2019t pierce criminals, you stone them to death.\u00a0 But the prophets saw the time in history, like Zechariah 12:10, Isaiah 53:5, and other places, Psalm 22 around verse 16-18, that the Messiah would actually be pierced and that has to do with Rome and how they taxed the Jewish people and how they removed from the Jews the power of capital punishment.\n\n[Zechariah 12:10, \u201cI will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn.\u201d\u00a0 Isaiah 53:5, \u201cBut He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.\u201d\u00a0 Psalm 22:16, \u201cFor dogs have surrounded me; A band of evildoers has encompassed me; They pierced my hands and my feet.\u201d]\n\nSo Israel has been in the land now for about five centuries by the time of Christ; coming back into the land under the Persians; the Persians were followed by the Greeks; the Greeks were followed by the Romans, but despite the long residency in the land the times of the Gentiles kept right on rolling through this time period that we\u2019re talking about here.\n\nSo this causes us to leave the Old Testament and to now develop the kingdom program into the New Testament.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I had you turn to Matthew 3:2.\u00a0 There had been, prior to this time, 400 years of silence, God was not speaking through any specific prophet and actually I told you Matthew 3:2 [Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d] but look for a second at Matthew 1:17, Jesus Christ shows up at this time in history and this is how Matthew begins his Gospel; he begins it with a genealogy of Christ.\u00a0 And Matthew sums up the genealogy this way in verse 17, it says, \u201cSo all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.\u201d\n\nNow when\u00a0 you cross reference this with the book of 1 Chronicles what you\u2019ll discover is there\u2019s a lot more here than three groups of fourteen; he\u2019s just randomly picking the number fourteen.\u00a0 And he picks the number 14 because of something called gematria, where you could take someone\u2019s name, spell it out either in Hebrew or Greek and you could attach a number to each letter.\u00a0 So the Hebrew alphabet had numbers associated with each letter, the Greek alphabet had numbers associated with each letter, and so you could convert anybody\u2019s name to a number just by spelling it out and attaching the right number to the right letter.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the whole significance behind the antichrist of the future being 666; whoever the antichrist is you can spell out his name in Greek, attach the right number to the right letter and it will wield the number 666 and that\u2019s why those in the tribulation period are going to know exactly who the antichrist is.\n\nBut Matthew picks 14 because the gematria of David yields which total?\u00a0 14, so that\u2019s why Matthew here randomly picks three groups of 14.\u00a0 It\u2019s a literary device designed to show or to demonstrate that Jesus is the Davidic heir.\u00a0 Jesus is the heir to the Davidic Covenant.\n\nSo the genealogy traces the lineage of Jesus Christ, first of all back to David and then back to Abraham.\u00a0 And what Matthew is showing is that Jesus is the guy!\u00a0 He is the guy we have all been waiting for; He is the Messiah, He is the rightful heir to the Abrahamic Covenant, He is the rightful heir to the Davidic Covenant.\u00a0 In Matthew 9:27 He is called the Son of David.\u00a0 In Luke 1:32-33 and 68 and 69 He again is called the rightful heir to David\u2019s throne, David\u2019s promises.\n\n[Matthew 9:27, \u201cAs Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, \u2018Have mercy on us, Son of David!\u201d\u2019\u00a0\u00a0 Luke 1:32-33, \u201cHe will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David;\u00a0 [33] and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and His kingdom will have no end.\u201d\u00a0 Luke 1:68-69, \u201cBlessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, [69] And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant\u2014\u201c]\n\nAnd let\u2019s remember Israel\u2019s covenant structure for just a second.\u00a0 The Abrahamic Covenant gave Israel what over her blessings?\u00a0 It starts with an O\u2026 Ownership.\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant gave Israel, if she meets the condition what over her blessings?\u00a0 Possession.\u00a0 So it says in the Mosaic Covenant, \u201cNow then if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant then you shall be My own possession.\u201d [Exodus 19:5, \u201c'Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine;\u201d]\u00a0 And then later on it mentions the kingdom.\u00a0 So once the nation of Israel fulfills the condition of the Mosaic Covenant she is not just the owner but also the what?\u00a0 The possessor, and the kingdom arrives.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 I mean, that\u2019s all building to the covenant structure going all the way back to the time of Abraham, all the way back to the time of Moses.\n\nNow who does the Mosaic Covenant ultimate point towards?\u00a0 Jesus.\u00a0 Deuteronomy 17:15, part of the Mosaic Covenant, tells Israel, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, [one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.]\u201d\n\nSo they are to usher in their kingdom blessings to fulfill this condition where they become owner and possessor and the manifestation of the kingdom arrives.\u00a0 What does the nation of Israel have to do?\u00a0 They have to enthrone Christ; Christ is the King of God the Father\u2019s selection.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And this is why Jesus stood before His accusers and said in John 5:45-47, \u201cDo not think that I will accuse you before the Father; the one who accuses you is Moses, in whom you have set your hope. [46] For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me, for he wrote about Me. [47, But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?]\u201d\u00a0 Well where did Moses write about Jesus?\u00a0 Many places, but specifically he wrote about Him in Deuteronomy 17:15.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:15, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.\u201d]\n\nOne thousand five hundred years earlier God had said\u00a0 you\u2019ve got to get the kingdom, to receive the kingdom you have to enthrone the king of God\u2019s choosing and the New Testament, through the Matthean genealogy, we learn that Jesus is the King of God\u2019s choosing.\u00a0 He is the rightful heir.\u00a0 And it\u2019s still incumbent upon Israel to enthrone Him as the King and if they were to enthrone Him as the King they would be not just owner but also possessor of their blessings and the kingdom of God would have arrived.\n\nNow what I\u2019ve just described here is what is called the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Israel has an opportunity in the first century, with the arrival of Christ, that no generation had ever had.\u00a0 They simply had to enthrone the King on the King\u2019s throne; had had happened Deuteronomy 17:15 would have been fulfilled.\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:15, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.\u201d]\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant would have been fulfilled, Israel would be owner and possessor and the kingdom of God would have arrived.\n\nAnd this is why when Jesus shows up you have a repetition of the phrase, \u201cRepent,\u201d now what does repent mean?\u00a0 Change of mind, metanoe<\/em>\u014d,<\/em> meta <\/em>\u00a0means change, as in metamorphosis, and from \u00a0noe<\/em>\u014d<\/em> you get the word notion, which comes out of the mind.\u00a0 Metanoe<\/em>\u014d<\/em> is the Greek word for repentance, translated repentance, change your mind.\u00a0 In other words, what he is saying is change your mind about Christ, don\u2019t look at Him as somebody that\u2019s a usurper, look at him as the rightful king that He is.\n\nSo John the Baptist, in Matthew 3:2, Jesus, in Matthew 4:17, and then the twelve apostles in Matthew 10:5-7, and then in Luke\u2019s Gospel the seventy, as the Lord sends out the seventy in Luke 10, verse 1 and verse 9, all four sections you\u2019ll see this expression \u201crepent,\u201d change your mind, \u201crepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\n\nAll four sections you\u2019ll see this expression \u201crepent\u201d (change your mind), \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 The first person to utter it was John the Baptist, the first prophet that God began to speak through after the 400 years of silence and it says in Matthew 3:1-2, \u201cNow in those days John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, [2] Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 And then Jesus shows up, and He starts preaching the same message.\u00a0 Matthew 4:17, \u201c\u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 See how this phrase keeps repeating itself.\n\nAnd then when Jesus sends out the twelve to preach in Matthew 10:5-7, it says,\u00a0 \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: \u201cDo not go in the<\/em> way of the<\/em> Gentiles, and do not enter any<\/em> city of the Samaritans; [6<\/a>] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [7] And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\n\nLuke\u2019s Gospel records Jesus sending out a larger group to Israel called the seventy,\u00a0 Luke 10:1 says, \u201cNow after this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.\u201d And then He\u2019s giving instructions, [Luke 10:9,] \u201cand heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, \u2018The kingdom of God has come\u201d\u00a0 now here the language is a little different, it\u2019s the same idea, \u201cThe kingdom of God has near to you.\u2019\u201d\n\nWhat does all of this mean?\u00a0 What it means is the kingdom has drawn near because the King was present in their midst.\u00a0 Had the nation of Israel enthroned the King on the King\u2019s terms the kingdom would have become a reality.\u00a0 And this is what is meant by the expression \u201cthe offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 As you go through the early Gospels it\u2019s hard to miss this.\n\nSo this leads to five basic questions about this offer of the kingdom, about this expression, \u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Number 1, what does he mean by \u201cthe kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Question 1.\u00a0 Number 2, why is it called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d?\u00a0 Number 3, why is it called \u201cat hand\u201d?\u00a0 Number 4, to which specific group was this kingdom offered?\u00a0 And number 5, what are some mis-interpretations today of this kingdom offer?\u00a0 And sadly on the landscape there are many misinter\u00adpretations of it and this is why people today don\u2019t preach the gospel of grace; they grab language from early Matthew and pretend like that\u2019s the gospel and they\u2019re preaching the wrong message, in essence, is what I\u2019ll show you.\u00a0 That\u2019s why this issue is a big deal.\u00a0 The better you understand this issue the better you\u2019ll keep your gospel clear because you\u2019re making a basic distinction that the Word of God wants you to make.\u00a0 But more on that later.\n\nQuestion number 1, what does he mean by this expression, kingdom?\u00a0 John the Baptist, the Twelve, Jesus showed up and said \u201cthe kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d He uses an expression \u201cthe kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 What is He talking about?\u00a0 Now most people come into this word \u201ckingdom\u201d and they define it any way they want, they just dump their own meaning into it.\u00a0 It\u2019s the rule of God in our hearts, or whatever you want to make it out to be.\u00a0 But the fact of the matter is the word \u201ckingdom\u201d here is never defined.\u00a0 So if we\u2019re going to define the word \u201ckingdom\u201d correctly what do we have to dial back into to understand it?\u00a0 All of the Old Testament history that we\u2019ve covered!\u00a0 So when the New Testament writers use the expression \u201ckingdom\u201d and leave it undefined they are expecting us to define it by prior revelation, which we just spent seven weeks going through meticulously.\u00a0 I don\u2019t have the freedom to define the word kingdom any way I want to define it.\u00a0 I have to define it by how prior revelation, in this case the Old Testament, has developed this expression \u201ckingdom.\u201d\n\nSo everything that we\u2019ve covered, the rule of God in Eden, the Abrahamic Covenant, the Mosaic Covenant, the divided kingdom, the times of the Gentiles, the portrait given in the Old Testament prophets, God\u2019s dealings with Judah as he brought them out of exile, all of that has to factor into my definition of the kingdom.\u00a0 So everything that\u2019s in the Abrahamic Covenant that we\u2019ve gone over meticulously defines that expression \u201ckingdom\u201d in Matthew 3:2 which is the Greek word, basileia<\/em>, [\u03b2\u03b1\u03c3\u03b9\u03bb\u03b5\u03af\u03b1] everything that we know about this stone cut without human hands that destroyed the antichrist\u2019s empire, has to be factored into my definition of the word \u201ckingdom\u201d in Matthew 3:2.\u00a0 [Matthew 3:2, \u201c\u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 Everything the Old Testament prophets revealed about the kingdom has to be part of my definition as well.\u00a0 Now we spent two weeks, did we not, going through everything (not everything but most of the things) the Old Testament prophets said about the kingdom.\n\nWhat is the kingdom?\u00a0 It\u2019s the time in history where Jerusalem is the center of world, spiritual and political authority; it\u2019s a time period of perfect justice, world peace, peace in the animal kingdom, and the earth is filled with the universal spiritual knowledge of the Lord.\u00a0 These are all factors which fill out this expression \u201ckingdom,\u201d which is never defined, at least in the New Testament.\n\nNow Michael Cocoris, one of my favorite Bible teachers, wrote a book called Repentance: The Most Misunderstood Word in the Bible<\/em> and in that book he says something that I think is critically important to understand.\u00a0 Look at what Michael Cocoris says.\u00a0 He says, \u201cThe nature of communication is such that once authors define a term,\u201d like the word kingdom in the Old Testament, \u201cthey are obligated to use that term the same way, until they notify the readers otherwise.\u201d\u00a0 See that.\n\nSo what do you have in Matthew 3:2?\u00a0 You just have the word \u201ckingdom, it\u2019s not defined.\u00a0 So I am not free to pour into that word another definition.\u00a0 What I am obligated under God to do is to search the Old Testament and to figure out how prior revelation defines that term.\u00a0 It is the geopolitical and spiritual rule of Christ manifested on planet earth; that\u2019s the kingdom.\u00a0 And you see, the amillennial system, which teaches that Jesus set up kingdom in spiritual form in the first century completely pours a bunch of meaning into that word kingdom that you\u2019re not going to find anywhere in the Old Testament.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like they\u2019ve cut off the New Testament from the Old Testament.\u00a0 And our amillennial brethren are in tremendous error here because they\u2019re not following the principle that Michael Cocoris articulated and they\u2019re not diligently searching out what the Old Testament says about the kingdom.\n\nArthur Pink, who wrote a very helpful book called The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em> says this: \u201cIn [Daniel 2] verse 44 we are told, \u2018And in the days of these kings (the \u201ckingdom\u201d before referred to) shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all the kingdoms, and it shall stand forever.\u2019\u2026Further details concerning it are given in Daniel 7:13, 14 . . . After Daniel, the voice of prophecy was soon silenced, and for four hundred years the people of Israel remained in a state of eager expectation, waiting for God to fulfill His promises. Next appeared John the Baptist, who took\u2026\u00a0 up the kingdom<\/em> message just where the O.\u00a0T. prophets had dropped it.\u201d\u2019 He\u2019s got it right here.\n\n\u201cIn Matthew 3:1, 2 we read, \u2018\u2026Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven<\/em> is at hand\u2019\u2014it was \u2018at hand,\u2019 because the King Himself was about to appear in the midst of the Jews. When John said, \u2018The kingdom of heaven<\/em> is at hand,\u2019 what do you suppose his Jewish hearers\u201d that\u2019s who Jesus showed up to, right?\u00a0 First century Jews; how do you think they understood the word \u201ckingdom\u201d?\u00a0 They obviously understood it based on how the Old Testament had carefully presented it because they, the Jews, were the custodians of the Old Testament.\u00a0 They didn\u2019t just pour their own meaning into the word \u201ckingdom.\u201d\u00a0 They knew exactly what it meant because they had the pages of the Old Testament that defines what the kingdom is.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026what do you suppose his Jewish hearers understood by that expression? They had the whole of the O.T. in their hands, but that<\/em> is all<\/em> which they then had. Obviously, all their thoughts would naturally turn to that kingdom which the Son of Man was to receive in heaven<\/em> at the hands of the Ancient of days.\u201d\u00a0 [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software]\n\nIn other words, when John the Baptist uses the expression changes and the Jews heard what he said they defined it, not by their favorite theological system; they defined it by the Old Testament.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I\u2019ve started in the Old Testament helping us define what the word \u201ckingdom\u201d is because I knew the time would come when we would get into the New Testament and we would see references to the kingdom undefined and I wanted you to have the background by which you, just like a first century Jew would, define the word \u201ckingdom.\u201d\u00a0 So I think Arthur Pink is right on here.\n\nSo what, then is this kingdom?\u00a0 It\u2019s the unchallenged rulership of God that has now drawn near to man in the person of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And if the Jews had simply fulfilled their condition that rule and authority would have\u00a0 boom, blanketed all of planet earth exactly as the Old Testament prophets predicted that it would.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what the word \u201ckingdom\u201d means.\n\nNow you hear all these ministries saying we\u2019re bringing in the kingdom today, we\u2019re building the kingdom, we\u2019re going kingdom work, we have a kingdom connection; you hear all these buzz words and none of these ministries, and this is what really gets under my skin about the whole thing, are doing the careful biblical study that we\u2019re doing because they\u2019re not defining the word \u201ckingdom\u201d by how the expression is carefully developed by the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament.\u00a0 I\u2019m not free to just attach any meaning to the word \u201ckingdom\u201d that I want, I have to pay attention to prior revelation, which is what we\u2019ve been studying.\n\nSo that\u2019s what the kingdom is.\u00a0 Question number 2 is what does it mean when it says \u201cthe kingdom of heaven,\u201d why in the world is it called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d?\u00a0 Matthew 10:7 says, \u201cAnd as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d?\u00a0 The answer relates to Daniel 2.\u00a0 Daniel saw the stone cut without human hands coming from where?\u00a0 Heaven to the earth, and destroying the empire of the antichrist.\u00a0 Daniel 2:44 of that transaction says, \u201cIn the days of those kings\u201d what kings?\u00a0 The ten king confederacy of the antichrist, the last Gentile power at the very end of the times of the Gentiles, just prior to the Second Advent of Christ.\u00a0 \u201cIn the days of those kings\u201d the ten king confederacy of the antichrist, \u201cthe God of heaven will set up a kingdom which will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not be left for another people; it will crush and put an end to all these kingdoms, but it will itself endure forever.\u201d\n\nIt\u2019s called the kingdom of heaven not so much because of its content, and this is where people get confused, oh, it\u2019s just a heavenly kingdom\u2026 no, it\u2019s not just a heavenly kingdom because the Old Testament prophets, actually going all the way back to Eden, defined the kingdom as a rule of God on this earth.\u00a0 So it\u2019s not heavenly, it\u2019s earthly.\u00a0 It\u2019s called, therefore, the kingdom of heaven not because of its content but because of its source.\u00a0 Where does this kingdom originate from?\u00a0 From heaven.\u00a0 Where does this kingdom come from?\u00a0 It comes from heaven.\n\nJohn Walvoord, in his Matthew commentary, writes this: \u201cWhat did John mean by \u2018kingdom of heaven\u2019? While the precise phrase is not found in the Old Testament, it is based on Old Testament terminology. Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, referred to God as the \u2018King of heaven\u2019 (Dan 4:37). Daniel had predicted that the climax of world history would come with the advent of the Son of Man, who would be given an everlasting kingdom. This was likewise to be fulfilled by the prediction of Daniel 2:44\u201d which we just read, \u201cthat \u2018the God of heaven\u2019 would \u2018set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed.\u2019 Matthew, alone of New Testament writers, uses \u2018the kingdom of heaven\u2019 and rarely uses \u2018the kingdom of God,\u2019 which is often used in parallel passages in the other gospels and throughout the New Testament. Most expositors consider the two terms identical.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew: Thy Kingdom Come<\/em> (Chicago: Moody, 1974), 30.]\n\nMatthew likes the expression \u201ckingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Do you know why that\u2019s true?\u00a0 Because Matthew is Gentile or Jewish?\u00a0 Jewish, so he doesn\u2019t really like to use the word God; even our secretary, who went on to another ministry, who was a Jewish Christian, when you got an e-mail from her she would not spell out the word God, you could tell she was using the word God but she would leave out\u2026 I think the o, because in Jewish thought you don\u2019t dare use the word God.\u00a0 Luke, on the other hand, who\u2019s a Gentile writer, uses the expression kingdom of God.\u00a0 But kingdom of God and kingdom of heaven are terms that are interchangeable, they\u2019re synonyms.\u00a0 Kingdom of heaven is more of a Jewish expression; kingdom of God is more of a Gentile expression but both are talking about the rule of heaven that is now drawing near to the earth in the person of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 It\u2019s not talking about the content of the kingdom; it\u2019s not talking about Jesus reigning in our hearts and things like that.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about the origin of the kingdom, from where does the kingdom come?\n\nNow let me ask you a question; is God ever outvoted in heaven?\u00a0 No!\u00a0 God always gets His way in heaven; nobody challenges His authority, His reign is supreme.\u00a0 And what is being said here by repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand is the unchallenged rulership of God in heaven has the potential of manifesting itself to the earth as Jesus rules this planet of sinners with a rod of iron where His will, will never be second guessed.\u00a0 And to get it Israel all\u00a0 you have to do is fulfill\u00a0 your condition, because genealogically the guy you\u2019ve been waiting for is here, just enthrone Him on His terms and the kingdom will come, because Israel, once you do that you will not just be the owner but the what?\u00a0 the possessor, the covenant structure will be satisfied and the kingdom will come.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why it\u2019s called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven.\u201d\n\nThe third question, why is it called \u201cat hand\u201d?\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cnear\u201d?\u00a0 What does Jesus say when He sent out the twelve?\u00a0 \u201cThe kingdom of heaven is\u201d what? \u201cat hand.\u201d\u00a0 Now listen to me very carefully; it does not mean the kingdom has arrived.\u00a0 Do you follow me?\u00a0 This expression found in the offer of the kingdom does not mean that the kingdom is here; what it means is the kingdom is not here but near.\u00a0 The kingdom is in an any moment state of expectancy.\u00a0 The kingdom could materialize in the next nanosecond contingent upon how the nation of Israel responds to this offer of the kingdom.\n\nBack to Arthur\u00a0 Pink, I\u2019ve read this quote already but look at this part I\u2019ve got underlined here, \u201cit was at hand it was \u2018at hand,\u2019 because the King Himself was about to appear in the midst of the Jews.\u201d\u00a0 The possibility or potentiality of any generation enthroning Christ and receiving the kingdom and the kingdom coming to the whole world was right there in their midst.\u00a0\u00a0 You talk about an opportunity of multiple generations they had it.\n\nNow what I want to point out is this expression, \u201cat hand\u201d and you Greek students up here in the front will appreciate this, the verb there is \u1f10\u03b3\u03b3\u03af\u03b6\u03c9 \u2013 eng\u00edz\u014d, the parsing of that word is third person singular perfect active indicative.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let\u00a0 your eyes gloss over, I\u2019ll show you what I\u2019m talking about.\u00a0 That is the identical parsing of the same Greek word, or verb in James 5:8, \u201cYou too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord\u201d this is talking about the rapture, \u201cis\u201d what? \u201cnear.\u201d\u00a0 Now that\u2019s eng\u00edz\u014d<\/em>,<\/em> third person singular perfect active indicative, just like it is in Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 10:7. [Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 10:7, \u201cAnd as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d]\n\nNobody takes James 5:8, that Jesus is here in that verse.\u00a0 That verse is not saying Jesus is here, it\u2019s saying He\u2019s near.\u00a0 In the doctrine of the rapture we believe he can come back any second, any split second.\u00a0 So when we have this same verb with the identical parsing of the verb in Matthew 10:7 in the expression \u201cthe kingdom of God is at hand,\u201d in the same way it\u2019s not saying the kingdom is here, it\u2019s saying the kingdom is near, the kingdom is imminent, the kingdom is in a place of any moment expectancy.\n\nThis takes us to question number four: to whom was the kingdom offered?\u00a0 Now I\u2019ll finish with number four, to whom was the kingdom offered?\u00a0\u00a0 Did you catch Matthew 10:5-7?\u00a0 \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: \u2018Do not go among the Gentiles\u201d so are you going to use this verse at your missions conference, about how we are going to take the gospel to all nations?\u00a0 Jesus says don\u2019t even go to the Gentiles with this. Do not \u201center any town of the Samaritans. [6] But rather go to the lost sheep of Israel. [7] As you go, proclaim this message: \u2018The kingdom of heaven has come near.\u2019\u201d\n\nWho was the kingdom offered to?\u00a0 It was offered to Israel, first century Israel because only Israel was given the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 Only they could have satisfied the conditions.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 Now this becomes very clear in the story of the Syrophoenician woman in Matthew 15 where Jesus was in an area of Israel that was heavily Gentile, there were some Gentile populations in Israel, Matthew 15 tells us this, she talks about\u2026 I think it\u2019s her son that has an illness, so she\u2019s a Gentile coming to Him, a Jew, wanting a miracle and you remember what He said to her?\u00a0 \u201cBut He answered and said, \u201cI was sent only to the\u201d what? \u201clost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d [Matthew 15:24]\u00a0 In other words, get away from Me lady, I\u2019m not here to perform miracles for you, I\u2019m here to offer the kingdom to first century Israel.\u00a0 And you remember her response?\u00a0 She talks about well even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall off the master\u2019s table and she understood that she was to be blessed through Israel; that\u2019s what she acknowledged.\u00a0 And He said you know, I haven\u2019t seen faith like this even in Israel itself.\u00a0 And that very hour the infirmity in her, I can\u2019t remember if it was her son or her daughter is taken away.\u00a0 You can read about it in Matthew 15.\n\n[The Syro-Phoenician Woman<\/em>, Matthew 15:21, \u201cJesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tyre and Sidon. [22] And a Canaanite woman from that region came out and began<\/em> to cry out, saying, \u2018Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.\u2019 [23] But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and implored Him, saying, \u2018Send her away, because she keeps shouting at us.\u2019 \u00a0[24] But He answered and said, \u2018I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u2019 [25<\/a>] But she came and began<\/em> to bow down before Him, saying, \u2018Lord, help me!\u2019 [26] And He answered and said, \u2018It is not good to take the children\u2019s bread and throw it to the dogs. \u00a0[27] But she said, \u2018Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters\u2019 table.\u2019 \u00a0[28] Then Jesus said to her, \u2018O woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.\u2019 And her daughter was healed at once.\u201d]\n\nBut notice that Jesus says, in this exchange with this Syro-Phoenician woman, \u201c\u00a0 I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 And that\u2019s why he says to the twelve don\u2019t go to the Gentiles with this, don\u2019t even go to the Samaritans, the half-breed race,, but go \u201cto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u201d\u00a0 So as the chosen people they were the ones given the first bite of the apple to receive this offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Had they received it the times of the Gentiles would have ended, just like that.\u00a0 The Roman Empire, who they hated, that attacks them out of existence and took away their right to execute their own criminals would have been immediately overthrown by Jesus Christ.\u00a0 The stone cut without human hands that Daniel saw would have arrived.\n\nArthur Pink sums it up very well.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice in my book, that I wrote, I\u2019m very fond of Arthur Pink\u2019s treatment of this.\u00a0 He said, \u201cHad Israel remained in subjection to their King and obeyed His laws,\u201d now I\u2019m going to qualify what he says here, Israel didn\u2019t have to obey His laws, what they had to do was change their mind about Jesus, which is meant by the expression what?\u00a0 Repent!\u00a0 \u201cHad Israel remained in subjection to their King and obeyed His laws \u00a0not only would He have continued in their midst, but through them He would have governed the whole earth\u2014as He will yet do in the Millennium.\u201d [A. W. Pink (2005). The Prophetic Parables of Matthew Thirteen<\/em>. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software]\n\nSo the millennial kingdom that we read about, yet future, would have come to the earth had the nation of Israel responded to the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And this is what is meant by the expression, \u201cthe gospel of the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 4:23 says, \u201cJesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the\u201d what? \u201ckingdom, [and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.\u201d]\u00a0 The kingdom is going to come, the kingdom can come now if You will enthrone Me on My terms as\u00a0 your King over the nation.\n\nAnd as we\u2019ll be studying in this series tragically what happened, and the Gospels all lay this out, that the nation of Israel turns down the offer, therefore the gospel of the kingdom will not be preached again until what time period?\u00a0 The tribulation period.\u00a0 It\u2019s only when we get a description of the tribulation period in Matthew 24:14 that we read the expression, \u201cthe gospel of the kingdom,\u201d now this is Israel after the rapture.\u00a0 \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.\u201d\u00a0 So the offer has been taken off the table.\u00a0 I\u2019ll show you exactly how that happened, really the turning point is in Matthew 12.\n\nSo what is the kingdom?\u00a0\u00a0 It is what the Old Testament reveals about the kingdom, it\u2019s not some mystical reign of Jesus in our hearts.\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s the source, not the content, the source of the kingdom; it\u2019s the unchallenged rulership of God coming to the earth.\u00a0 Why is it called \u201cat hand\u201d?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean here, it means near because the King was present in Jesus, according to the Matthian genealogy which shows Jesus is the rightful heir.\u00a0 To whom was the kingdom offered?\u00a0 Only to national Israel.\u00a0 It\u2019s not something\u2026 when I evangelize people today I don\u2019t go up to them and repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand.\u00a0 And a lot of people are out there saying that because they are misinterpreting the kingdom offer as the normative gospel that people preach in the church age.\n\nNow next week I\u2019ll be showing you names of people that do this, people you know, people that re very popular and they are bringing massive confusion into the life of the church; they\u2019re bringing massive into the evangelistic activities of the church because they don\u2019t make this basic distinction about what the offer of the kingdom was.\u00a0 So anyway I\u2019ll quit talking and we\u2019ll look at misinterpretations of the kingdom offer next week.","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