{"id":19191,"date":"2017-03-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-03-22T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-011\/"},"modified":"2017-03-22T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-03-22T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-011","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-011\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 011"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19191","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 011","sermon_date":"20170322","sermon_month":"3","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":4472,"sermon_slides":4473,"sermon_mp3":4475,"sermon_id":"322171971410","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"12:24","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\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\n4-5-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ephesians 3:5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 11\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 12 and verse 24.\u00a0 \u00a0Matthew 12:24.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t meet last week, I hope you didn\u2019t show up last week because you\u2019d have thought you missed the rapture if you\u2019d shown up last week.\u00a0 That\u2019s one of the reasons I like to review is you guys have\u00a0 your minds on a lot of different things so I want to just review before each class just to bring us back up to speed.\n\nBut as we\u2019re talking about this subject of the kingdom the first major topic is what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 We\u2019re starting from Genesis and going all the way through Revelation looking at the high points, trying to understand what this Scripture says about the kingdom.\u00a0 And we saw that the kingdom program began in Eden, as God governed a man, who governed the animals.\u00a0 And that kingdom was lost when our forbearers started listening to the animals and rebelling against God.\n\nSo ever since Genesis 3 the kingdom that God established is lost and so the goal of the Scripture is how is God going to retrieve this kingdom over this earth.\u00a0 We learned that He\u2019s going to do it through a special nation, called the nation of Israel and that\u2019s the significance of the Abrahamic Covenant.\u00a0 That\u2019s the beginning of Israel and that\u2019s where God gave to Abraham three blessings which are land, seed and blessing.\u00a0 And Israel at this point is the owner of those blessings; that\u2019s eternally settled.\n\nSix hundred years later He gives a second covenant, called the Mosaic Covenant which is not unconditional but conditional, and that is the covenant that sets forth the circumstances, not for ownership, ownership is already settled with the Abraham six centuries earlier, but the condition for possession or enjoyment.\u00a0 And ultimately that covenant points to who?\u00a0 Jesus!\u00a0 So the whole kingdom program and whether the kingdom comes to the earth really rests upon Israel\u2019s response to Christ.\u00a0 And then you get into the reign of Solomon, after Solomon leaves the throne and the kingdom is divided between the north and the south.\u00a0 Which if the two is the more important?\u00a0 The south and Judah because there\u2019s a tribe in the south called Judah and we know that the Messiah is coming through Judah.\n\nBut tiny Judah is taken into captivity to Babylon 350 miles to the east and that starts the times of the Gentiles.\u00a0 And that is the whole ministry of Daniel; he\u2019s explaining that time period prophetically and he describes this terrible time period when Israel won\u2019t have a king reigning on David\u2019s throne, the nation is going to be trampled down by various Gentile powers and he explains that the kingdom will not come until the times of the Gentiles are over.\u00a0 And the last 42 months of the times of the Gentiles are yet future from our point of view; that\u2019s the empire of the antichrist, which must run its course before the times of the Gentiles end and the kingdom can come. So during this time period (and we\u2019re still in it now) the kingdom is not in cancellation but what? Postponement, and this is where God begins to use the Old Testament prophets to give the nation hope by sketching a beautiful picture of what the world is going to be like one day when the kingdom comes.\n\nAnd then the nation comes back from the Babylonian captivity under the reign of Persia and the nation of Israel is actually in her land for a little over four centuries.\u00a0 And the times of the Gentiles hadn\u2019t ended: Persia is followed by Greece, Greece is followed by Rome, and that takes us right into the New Testament to the time of Christ and that\u2019s where Jesus shows up and offers to the nation of Israel the kingdom.\u00a0 So with the king present the nation of Israel had a golden opportunity to enthrone Christ on Christ\u2019s terms; had they have done that the condition of the Mosaic Covenant would have been satisfied, they wouldn\u2019t just be the owner but also the possessor and the kingdom would have come.\u00a0 So that\u2019s what\u2019s meant by the offer of the kingdom.\n\nAs I\u2019ll remind you tonight, it\u2019s faithfully preached, first by John the Baptist, second by The Twelve, and third by Christ Himself.\u00a0 And tragically the nation of Israel, we learn from the Gospels, turns down the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 So that\u2019s where we ended last time, we\u2019re right in the middle of Number 9, the rejection of the offer.\u00a0 And when we think about that we have to ask ourselves three questions: number 1, why did Israel reject the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 Number 2, what was the turning point?\u00a0 And then a very important question that I\u2019ve received a lot of inquiries about is was the kingdom reoffered in the book of Acts?\u00a0 So those are the subjects we\u2019re looking at tonight.\n\nNow subject 1 we\u2019ve already asked and answered the last time we were together\u2014why did Israel reject the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 And we basically said there\u2019s two reasons: number 1, Christ\u2019s kingdom was not just political, it was political but it was also moral and ethical in tone.\u00a0 And frankly the nation of Israel wasn\u2019t interested in that kind of a kingdom; they loved the political part of it, they loved the prophecies of overthrowing Rome and all of those kinds of things.\u00a0 But they really weren\u2019t interested in the moral teachings of Christ that accompanied the kingdom.\n\nAnd then the second reason we\u2019re given in the New as to why the nation of Israel rejected the offer of the kingdom is Israel (like many people today) wanted to be saved through self-righteousness.\u00a0 But the benefits that God offers to people, including the kingdom, and even including personal salvation today are never offered on the basis of works.\u00a0 They\u2019re always offered on the basis of faith alone and grace alone.\u00a0 And when you offer somebody grace it\u2019s like offering to pay for their lunch, it\u2019s easier to give a gift than to receive a gift.\u00a0 And whenever something is offered in grace they always say well can I leave a tip or whatever, because it goes against pride\u00a0 and so people want to believe that they\u2019re earning something from God.\u00a0 Israel thought that\u00a0 they could earn the kingdom and it wasn\u2019t offered on that basis so they turned it down.\n\nNow that\u2019s the why question, the second question is what was the turning point?\u00a0 In other words, when did they specifically turn down the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 And that\u2019s why I had you turn to Matthew 12:24 which is the turning point in the whole kingdom program. [Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u2019]\u00a0 If you were just to read Matthew 1-11 and then you were to skip chapter 12 and start reading in Matthew 13 you\u2019d be totally confused because Matthew 12 is one of those pivot chapters which explains the transition.\n\nSo the turning point really is in Matthew 12:24, Christ had performed a series of miracles and the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the nation couldn\u2019t deny the miracle so instead they attributed it to who?\u00a0 The devil.\u00a0 So once they attribute His plain miracles to Satan they just crossed the point of no return and it\u2019s like this a lot with Israel, even in the Old Testament, that a generation reaches a point where they can\u2019t go back.\u00a0 You remember the Kadesh-barnea generation, the generation that came out of Egypt and how they went and they saw giants in the land and they fell into unbelief, Numbers 13 and 14.\u00a0 That was a turning point for them that they couldn\u2019t retrieve or get back.\u00a0 So Matthew 12 is one of those chapters.\u00a0 Matthew 12:24 says, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u201d\u2019\u00a0 And the moment that happens this offer of the kingdom, which had been faithfully extended to national Israel, is withdrawn, it\u2019s rescinded.\u00a0 And the expression, the gospel of the kingdom, which has been fairly prominent up to this point, disappears from Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\n\nIn fact, that expression will not reappear until Matthew records the words of Christ describing the great tribulation period.\u00a0 That\u2019s when the offer of the kingdom will come back for the nation, in the midst of the tribulation period following the rapture of the church.\u00a0 So Matthew 12 is huge.\n\nAnd here\u2019s a little chart that I\u2019ve put together that sort of shows you the difference between the first twelve chapters of Matthew and chapters 13-28.\u00a0 In Matthew 1-12 Christ is doing public ministry by offering the kingdom; He\u2019s proving who He is through miracles and signs, and He\u2019s offering the kingdom to the nation.\u00a0 Now you get into Matthew 13-28 you don\u2019t have public ministry anymore; it\u2019s private ministry and he\u2019s privately ministering to the remnant, that smaller group that went against the pattern of the rest of the nation and trusted Him.\n\nThe focus in the first part of the book is the nation; the focus in the second part of the book is the remnant.\u00a0 The purpose for His miracles changes; in Matthew 1-12 His miracles prove to the nation that He\u2019s the Messiah and the heir to the covenants; but that\u2019s not what His miracles are doing in the second half of the book, He is training the remnant because they\u2019re going to be the foundation stones of the coming church age which they know very little about and He\u2019s preparing them for their roles, largely narrated for us in the book of Acts. Miracles are things like Peter walks out on the water and these kinds of miracles and He\u2019s doing these things really to prepare the remnant.\u00a0 He\u2019s no longer publicly doing miracles (in public) for the benefit of the nation.\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom, \u201crepent for the kingdom of God is at hand\u201d which is faithfully offered in the first half of the book disappears in the second half of the book.\u00a0 You don\u2019t find it except when we have descriptions of the end time tribulation period.\n\nAnd then the teaching method of Christ changes.\u00a0 Prior to Matthew 12 He taught in open discourse form; that would be very clear teaching.\u00a0 But when you get into Matthew 13 suddenly He starts talking in parables which is an interesting transition in pedagogy because He never gave the Sermon on the Mount in parables so why is all of a sudden is He speaking in parables?\u00a0 Well the purpose of a parable is to conceal truth and reveal truth so you\u2019re talking just a little bit under the surface so the nation as a whole can\u2019t understand what He\u2019s saying.\u00a0 And He\u2019s actually doing that out of mercy towards them because \u201cto whom much is given much is required.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s already clear they\u2019re going to reject Him so the more truth He gives them just enhances their degree of punishment really, on the day of day of judgment.\u00a0 So He hides truth from the nation but He delivers it in such a way that the remnant can start to understand what He\u2019s talking about.\n\nThe interim program, like the church, is absent in Matthew 1-12 but suddenly you get into the second half of the book and he starts making statements, like, \u201cI will build My church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 16:18, \u201cI also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.\u201d]\u00a0 What church is He talking about?\u00a0 We\u2019ve never had any information about the church up to this point in time.\n\nWhat He\u2019s revealing there is an interim program that\u2019s going to unfold, it\u2019s a program that we\u2019re in now, in between the time period when the nation rejects the kingdom and when they receive it again in the distant future.\u00a0 So the interim program starts becoming very prominent in the second half of the book.\u00a0 Now what\u2019s interesting is you go all the way through Matthew 1-12 He never mentions His crucifixion; He never mentions His coming resurrection.\u00a0 But suddenly you get into the second half of the book and He starts talking about how He\u2019s got to go up to Jerusalem and be crucified, and be betrayed to the Gentiles.\n\nNow take a look for just a minute at Matthew 4:17, because if you can catch this phrase you can pick up on the two divisions in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 [Matthew 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u2019]\u00a0 You see where it says \u201cFrom that time on\u201d some versions say, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach \u2026 \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now go over to Matthew 16:21, this is the second half of the book, and what does it say?\u00a0 \u201cFrom that time\u201d same expression, see that, \u201cJesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things [from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day].\u201d\n\nSo the expression \u201cFrom that time on\u201d that\u2019s used twice in Matthew\u2019s Gospel in the two major sections is revealing the two purposes that Christ came into the world.\u00a0 The first reason, these are more in order of chronology rather than importance because I think they\u2019re both equally important to God.\u00a0 The first reason Jesus came into the world is to offer the kingdom to Israel, since they were the covenanted people they were given \u201cthe first bite of the apple,\u201d so to speak, to enthrone the king so that the kingdom would come.\n\nWe know what happened, they turned down the offer of the kingdom and so what God does is He takes lemons and turns them into what?\u00a0 Lemonade.\u00a0 He takes a tragedy and turns it into a triumph. He took their rejection of Him to lead the way to the cross so Jesus could pay the sin debt for the entire world.\u00a0 And that is the second great reason for which He came into the world.\u00a0 And the repetition of the expression \u201cfrom that time on,\u201d Matthew 4:17, then repeated again in Matthew 16:21, gives you these two great purposes.\n\nSo He came first to offer the kingdom but God, through infinite foreknowledge knew that Israel would reject the offer, which would lead to the second great purpose, it would lead to His betrayal and crucifixion which would be used to pay the sin debt of the world.\u00a0 So those are the two purposes for which He came.\u00a0 The first section of the book highlights the first purpose; the second section of the book highlights the second purpose.\n\nSo we can organize Matthew like a giant chiasm. Remember on Sunday morning we talked a little bit about chiasms, in other words, according to this chiasm, chapters 1 and 2, the content is sort of repeated in chapter 28.\u00a0 Chapters 3 and 4 the content is sort of repeated in chapters 26 and 27.\u00a0 And we can kind of work our way in and the center of the chiasm is the rejection of the King, Matthew 11 and 12.\u00a0 So Matthew 11 and 12 is the hinge chapter which transitions us from the public ministry of Christ to the private ministry of Christ.\n\nAnd after the nation of Israel rejects the offer of the kingdom in Matthew 12:24 where they attributed His miracles to Satan the rest of the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel simply explains how that decision that they made became ratified.\u00a0 In other words, a decision was made, the die was cast, and all the second half of the Gospel of Matthew is doing is explaining how that decision became ratified.\u00a0 It was ratified through the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem where He offered His Messianic credentials to the nation but the leadership rejected it.\u00a0 It was ratified through the legal trial of Christ which was, to put it mildly, a farce or a joke.\n\nThere have been a lot of academic articles written on this, in fact I quoted some when we were in John, explaining all of the legal rules that the Jews just ignored to rush Christ through the judicial system to get Him turned over to the Romans so He could die.\u00a0 They violated their own Scripture over and over again; they violated even their own traditions in the Mishnah and the Talmud.\u00a0 And Matthew is explaining all of that to basically show us that the decision that\u2019s been made in Matthew 12 is just simply being ratified in the second half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 And then of course that decision is ratified through the crucifixion, chapters 21-23 of Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\n\nSo the crucifixion is a done deal (as far as Matthew is concerned) by the time you hit Matthew 12:24; we know what\u2019s going to happen.\u00a0\u00a0 So we have these statements from the nation of Israel towards the end of His ministry.\u00a0 They say things like this, in John 19:15, \u201cWe have no king but Caesar.\u201d\u00a0 [John 19:15, \u201cSo they cried out, \u2018Away with Him, away with Him, crucify Him!\u2019 Pilate said to them, \u2018Shall I crucify your King?\u2019 The chief priests answered, \u2018We have no king but Caesar.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 That is a very clear rejection of the offer of the kingdom, it\u2019s there to ratify or explain what\u2019s already happened in their hearts in Matthew 12.\n\nAnd consequently Jesus, very late in His ministry, gives the parable of the minas, and in that parable one of the figures in the parable says, referring to Israel, \u201cWe do not want this man to reign over us.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 19:14, \u201cBut his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, \u2018We do not want this man to reign over us.\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 So that\u2019s the attitude of the nation of Israel towards their king.\u00a0 And all of these things are being skillfully weaved together to show us that they indeed did reject the offer of the king and the kingdom.\n\nAnd this is why John, in his gospel, summarizes this whole point in his prologue.\u00a0 It says of Jesus in John 1:11, \u201cHe\u201d that\u2019s Jesus, \u201ccame to His own,\u201d now who were His own?\u00a0 The nation of Israel, \u201cHe came to His own and those who were His own did not receive Him.\u201d\u00a0 So it was a tragedy what happened.\n\nThat\u2019s why I have that sort of lengthy quote by Dr. Toussaint and Dr. Quine in my book, I think it\u2019s footnote 2, chapter 8, on page 64 and 65, but they write this:\u00a0 \u201cMatthew 12 is one of several passages in the Gospels on the contingency of the coming kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 Three times before Matthew 12 the kingdom was said to be near, Matthew 3:2, Matthew 4:17, Matthew 10:7.\u00a0 Then after Jesus\u2019 opponents accused Him of casting out demons by the power of Satan, Matthew 12, the nearness of the kingdom is never mentioned again in the Gospels.\u00a0 Why was the kingdom said to be near and then after Matthew 12 was never again announced as being near in Jesus\u2019 ministry?\u00a0 The answer is that Israel rejected Jesus as the Messiah.\u00a0 This refusal to receive Him was true, not only of the religious authorities but also of the nation in general.\u00a0 The majority of the miracles, demonstrations of His sovereignty, were performed in Galilee and the people in Chorazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum failed to repent.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s in Matthew 11.\u00a0 \u201cThis rejection was then climaxed by the opposition and blasphemy of the religious authorities, Matthew 12.\u00a0 This did not mean that Christ stopped presenting Himself to Israel as their Messiah; He did this particularly in His triumphal entry but the die had already been cast, the kingdom was no longer near, Israel\u2019s tragic decision had been made much earlier.\u00a0 Clearly the coming of the kingdom was conditioned on Israel\u2019s response to Jesus.\u201d\n\nNow all the way back in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C., 600 years in advance, in the prophecy of the 70 weeks which we\u2019ll eventually get to on Sunday mornings, this is what Gabriel said to the prophet Daniel. Daniel 9:25, \u201cSo you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.\u00a0 [26] Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d\n\nSo this is a prediction that exactly 483\u00a0 years after the book of Nehemiah records a decree in Nehemiah 2, the Messiah is going to show up on Palm Sunday.\u00a0 And when we get to this on Sunday mornings those of you that are mathematical in nature will enjoy that because it involves a lot of mathematical calculations and computations but I\u2019ll be showing\u00a0 you that that prophecy was fulfilled to the exact day.\n\nBut notice that in this prophecy the Messiah, that\u2019s Jesus, is called \u201cthe prince.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s not called the king, He\u2019s called the prince.\u00a0 Now why is He called \u201cthe prince\u201d?\u00a0 Because He was never enthroned as king by his own nation.\u00a0 So even to this very day He is not King Jesus, He is at the right hand of the Father functioning as high priest but He\u2019s not reigning as king because the nation of Israel never enthroned Him.\u00a0 It\u2019s similar to David who was anointed as king in 1 Samuel 16 but he did not actually rule and reign as king until 2 Samuel 2, and then he got Jerusalem back in 2 Samuel 5 and during that interim Saul was on the throne.\u00a0 So in the same way Jesus has been anointed as king, we know He\u2019s going to rule as king one day, but He\u2019s not yet functioning as King because there\u2019s a Saul on the throne currently, and who\u2019s that Saul I\u2019m referring to?\u00a0\u00a0 Satan.\n\nAnd so humanity is being forced to make a decision.\u00a0 Just like a decision was being forced on the people during this transition period in the time of David; those that walk by sight followed Saul that\u2019s why there\u2019s so much information in the Samuel books about Saul\u2019s good looks and those kinds of things.\u00a0 And those that walk by faith followed David, trusting that the day would come when Saul would be deposed and David would be put on the throne.\u00a0 So to follow David, who was not yet on the throne, required faith.\u00a0 To follow Saul required no faith, it required sight because he was already on the throne.\u00a0 See that.\n\nSo in the same way Jesus is just like David before Saul was evicted.\u00a0 Jesus is anointed as King but He\u2019s not yet ruling as King so those of us that follow Christ must do it by faith.\u00a0 If we decide to walk by sight we follow the Saul that we currently have on the throne, the devil himself.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why Christ here is called the Prince.\n\nAnd then you\u2019ll notice this other underlined section, it says after the showing up of Jesus \u201cthe Messiah will be cut off\u201d that\u2019s His crucifixion, and notice what else it says, and He will \u201chave nothing.\u201d\u00a0 Some Bible translations say He will inherit nothing.\u00a0 So why did He inherit nothing at His First Advent?\u00a0 Because he was never enthroned by His own people.\u00a0 Had He been enthroned by His own people He would have inherited the kingdom, which He never did.\u00a0 So currently the kingdom is not cancelled, it\u2019s in a state of postponement awaiting the time in history where the nation of Israel will enthrone the king on His own terms and the king will inherit His kingdom.\n\nSo currently He is not king, although He\u2019s anointed to be king one day He\u2019s but a prince.\u00a0 Currently He does not have the kingdom, He\u2019s inherited nothing.\u00a0 But in the Second Advent He will, number 1, be king as He\u2019s enthroned as king and He will inherit the kingdom itself.\u00a0 So it\u2019s sort of interesting how everything started to move according to the prophecies that Daniel articulated.\n\nSo because the nation of Israel never enthroned her king in the first century they remain the owner of her blessings but not the possessor.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why we still have respect for the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, but we realize they haven\u2019t entered their full inheritance yet.\u00a0 So the kingdom is not in a state of cancellation but in a state of what?\u00a0 Postponement.\u00a0 And in this pause period God is working through a new man called the church, and that\u2019s where we come in.\u00a0 And we\u2019ll say more about the church when we get to the interim program.\n\nNow one of the things that\u2019s important to understand is Israel is still under this covenant, the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 Remember we described the Mosaic Covenant?\u00a0 Remember one of the provisions of the covenant?\u00a0 Blessings for obedience and what? curses for disobedience.\u00a0 That was articulated in Deuteronomy 28.\u00a0 At the height of Israel\u2019s disobedience what would God do? \u00a0[Deuteronomy 28:49] \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, \u00a0[50] a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old nor show favor to the young.\u201d\n\nAt the height of Israel\u2019s discipline under God, under the Mosaic Covenant that we (you might recall) identified as a suzerain vassal treaty, God said He would bring a foreign nation against His own people.\u00a0 Now Moses spoke those words all the way back in 1406 B.C.\u00a0 And the rest of the Old Testament vindicates how God made good on His promise over and over again.\u00a0 First of all, after Solomon sinned the kingdom was divided, that\u2019s covenant discipline.\u00a0 Then the northern tribes were swept away by the Assyrians; the remaining southern tribes, tiny Benjamin and Judah who was maybe a little bit bigger than Benjamin, was taken into captivity by the Babylonians.\n\nWhat is all of this an outworking of?\u00a0 It\u2019s an outworking of the blessings and curses. It\u2019s an outworking of Deuteronomy 28:49-50; Moses is just describing a cycle and the rest of your Old Testament (and New Testament for that matter) is describing how this cycle played out.\n\nSo guess what?\u00a0 What did Yogi Bear say?\u00a0 deja vu<\/em> all over again, something like that?\u00a0 The whole cycle is about to repeat itself.\u00a0 Why is that?\u00a0 Because what we just studied is the nation of Israel rejected the King and His kingdom.\u00a0 And so God, who is faithful to His Word is now once again going to bring a foreign power against His own people and this time the foreign power would not be the Assyrians, it would not be the Babylonians but it would be the Romans.\u00a0 And so forty years after the time of Christ come the horrors of A.D. 70.\u00a0 And Daniel, in chapter 9, verse 26, in the verse I just read a little earlier, describes not just the rejection of the King and His kingdom and Him being cut off and inheriting nothing, but he goes on and he describes the covenant discipline that would be meted out by the Romans in A.D.. 70.\u00a0 Daniel, 600 years in advance, says as a consequence of these things (Israel\u2019s rejection of Christ) \u201cthe people of the prince,\u201d now this is a different prince, this particular prince is Titus of Rome, \u201cand the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 And its end will come with a flood.\u201d\u00a0 [Daniel 9:26]\n\nSo this is a description, if you will, of the horrors of A.D. 70 and we know it was a terrible time because Josephus, a historian that wrote just a tad after the time of Christ, talks about how difficult this time period was, and probably over a million Jews were put to death during this time period.\n\nLet me show you some other prophecies where Jesus predicts A.D.\u00a0 70.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Matthew 23:37-39, who\u2019s speaking here?\u00a0 It\u2019s all in red so it must be Jesus, \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem,\u201d who\u2019s He speaking to? \u00a0The nation of Israel.\u00a0 \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather\u201d now that word \u201cgather\u201d is very interesting, it\u2019s the Greek word episunag<\/em>\u014d<\/em>, where we get the word what? synagogue.\u00a0 So what is a synagogue?\u00a0 It\u2019s a Jewish gathering.\u00a0 So what Jesus is saying is I wanted to have synagogue with you in My first coming.\u00a0 \u201cJerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!\u201d\u00a0 See, the problem wasn\u2019t Christ, the problem was the nation of Israel.\u00a0 [38] \u201cBehold, your house is being left to you desolate!\u201d\u00a0 What would be the house of God?\u00a0 The temple.\n\nNow isn\u2019t it interesting that all the way through the Gospels Jesus always called the temple His Father\u2019s house?\u00a0 Now He no longer says it\u2019s My house or My Father\u2019s house, it\u2019s \u201cyour house.\u201d\u00a0 Why is it \u201cyour house\u201d?\u00a0 Because you drove Me out of it so now it\u2019s your responsibility, not Mine anymore.\u00a0 And my wife\u2019s in here so I don\u2019t know if I should talk about this but I notice that when my daughter acts up the pronouns shift in our family.\u00a0 When my daughter is doing something cute my wife says \u201cisn\u2019t our daughter wonderful?\u201d\u00a0 But then when she acts up the pronouns shift, she says \u201cDid you see what your daughter just did?\u201d\n\nSo he\u2019s basically saying it\u2019s your house.\u00a0 Now you would think that it would be over for Israel, right?\u00a0 But fortunately we have verse 39 where Jesus says, \u201cFor I say to you, from now on you\u201d that\u2019s Israel, \u201cyou will not see Me until\u201d see, there\u2019s a condition, what\u2019s the condition:\u00a0 The condition is the nation must respond to the King.\u00a0 \u201cFor I say to you, from now on you will not see me until you say, \u2018BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD!\u2019\u201d which is Psalm 188:26 which is a Messianic Psalm and what He\u2019s saying is I am not coming back for this nation until you publicly acknowledge Me as Your Messiah; that\u2019s what He is saying.\n\nAnd that\u2019s the confusion of Romans 10:9, that everybody wants to use as an evangelistic tract, \u00a0what does he say there, if we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart then we\u2019ll be saved.\u00a0 [Romans 10:9] \u201cthat if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;\u201d]\u00a0 And people say well, to get saved today you\u2019ve got to believe in Jesus and make a public confession but that\u2019s in the section dealing with Israel in the book of Romans.\u00a0 Romans 9, Israel in the past elected.\u00a0 Romans 10, Israel in the present rejected.\u00a0 Romans 11, Israel in the future accepted.\u00a0 Romans 10 is explaining the conversion of Israel in the tribulation period when they will confess Jesus as their Messiah.\n\nAnd so you have to sort of put Romans 10:9 together with Matthew 23:39 [Matthew 23:9, \u201cDo not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.\u201d] and so that\u2019s why I\u2019ve got all these gray hairs on my head now because I\u2019m trying to explain to everybody that you can\u2019t use Romans 10:9 in your gospel presentation because it\u2019s been institutionalized and parachurch ministries make that part of their format in all of their workbooks and all of their brochures; they don\u2019t want to rethink everything, they don\u2019t want to listen to theology, I mean, we\u2019ve got our system down, who are you to interfere with it.\u00a0 And by the way, we\u2019re a global organization and you\u2019re just a pastor of a local church, what do you know?\u00a0 And so you get constant pushback on people related to this but I wouldn\u2019t make an issue out of it if I didn\u2019t think the point was valid.\n\nRomans 10:9 has nothing to do with what you have to do to get saved.\u00a0 The condition to get saved is believe in Christ.\u00a0 Romans 10:9 is explaining the confession of Israel publicly during the tribulation period so He can come back and rescue them from the antichrist so he can set up His kingdom through them.\u00a0 That\u2019s what Jesus here is speaking of.\n\nTake a look at the next chapter, Matthew 24:1-2, He just said it\u2019s your house, right?\u00a0 But what does he say there\u00a0 in Matthew 24, \u201cJesus came out from the temple\u201d the house they just kicked Him out of, \u201cand was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him.\u201d\u00a0 See they haven\u2019t listened to anything He has said; they\u2019re still attracted to the temple, they looked at it sort of as a good luck charm, and look at what he says in verse 2, \u201cAnd He said to them, \u2018Do you not see all these things?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s the temple they\u2019re so enthralled with, [3] \u201cTruly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.\u201d\u00a0 What is He speaking of here?\u00a0 He\u2019s speaking of covenant discipline.\u00a0 Part of covenant discipline, which is coming about 40 years later through Titus of Rome in A.D. 70, is going to be the destruction of the temple.\n\nTake a look at Luke 19:41-44 this is the triumphal entry on Palm Sunday, which I think is coming up in a few weeks, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cWhen He approached Jerusalem,\u201d now this is the specific day that Daniel predicted, \u201cWhen He approached Jerusalem He saw the city and wept over it,\u201d now why in the world would He weep over the city?\u00a0 He\u2019s weeping over the city because he knows well Daniel 9:26, He knows what\u2019s going to happen, the Messiah is going to be cut off, He\u2019s not going to inherit the kingdom, and the people of the prince, Titus of Rome, will come and destroy the city and the sanctuary and its end will come with a flood.\u00a0 \u00a0[Daniel 9:26, \u201cThen after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.\u201d]\u00a0 He\u2019s seeing forty years in advance what\u2019s going to happen in A.D. 70.\u00a0 He over a million lives lost, that\u2019s why he\u2019s crying as He\u2019s riding into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.\u00a0 In other words, He knows they\u2019re going to reject Him as their King and they\u2019re going to be put back under the discipline of God which is expressed in the Mosaic Covenant. [Luke 19:41]\n\n\u201cWhen He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it,\u00a0 [42] saying, \u2018If you had known in this day,\u2019\u201d why would He emphasize this particular day?\u00a0 Because this is the day that Daniel said would come, to a mathematical certainty, exactly 483\u00a0 years after Nehemiah 1.\u00a0 That\u2019s why He\u2019s emphasizing the day, \u201cIf you had known in this day even you, the things which make for peace!\u201d what peace?\u00a0 The kingdom, you could have had the kingdom.\u00a0 \u201cBut now they have been hidden from your eyes.\u201d\n\nThat\u2019s very important to understand, that God put the nation of Israel under judicial blinding; He put blinders on them so they could not see once they rejected the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s not saying that an individual Jew can\u2019t occasionally come to Christ but what you\u2019ll discover in the world, and it\u2019s been this way ever since Paul\u2019s first missionary journey starting in Acts 13 is the majority of people that come to Christ are not Jewish people, they\u2019re Gentiles because the nation is under a judicial blinding for their rejection of the offer of the kingdom.\n\nVerse 43, \u201cFor the days will come upon you when your enemies\u201d what enemies?\u00a0 Rome, \u201cwill throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side,\u201d now when you study the fulfillment of this prophecy, the details given by the historian, Josephus, what you\u2019ll discover is this is an exact description of what Titus of Rome did.\u00a0 He built a barricade around the city of Jerusalem so even if you wanted to get out you couldn\u2019t.\u00a0 And you were basically as good as dead if you were a Jewish person.\n\nVerse 44 says, \u201cand they will level you to the ground\u201d now look at this, \u201cand your children within you,\u201d see that, Josephus talks about how the Roman soldiers, and I don\u2019t mean to be grizzly about this, but they actually tore open the wombs of the pregnant Jewish women and strangled the child inside of them so as to snuff out Israel from under the sun.\u00a0\u00a0 And by the way, the Bible, no extra charge for this, when it says \u201cyour children within you,\u201d the Bible is prolife.\u00a0 The Bible doesn\u2019t make any distinction between pre-born and born.\u00a0 And I know it\u2019s always a risk to say something like that because in any audience you could have had someone that\u2019s had an abortion and usually in that circumstance I like to also preach the grace of God.\u00a0 The grace of God covers over any sin when we trust in Christ, but that doesn\u2019t change the fact that there\u2019s no distinction biblically between pre-born and born.\n\n\u201cAnd they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another,\u201d that\u2019s the destruction of the temple and how it was torn apart brick by brick, and Josephus talks about how when Titus came 40 years later the temple got set on fire and it caused the gold to melt because of the heat, and the gold oozed down and dried in between the bricks of the temple.\u00a0 So what do you think the Roman soldiers did to get their hands on the gold?\u00a0 They took the temple apart brick by brick.\u00a0 That\u2019s exactly what Jesus said would happen.\n\nBy the way, didn\u2019t Jesus also say that in the verse we looked at earlier, Matthew 24:1-2?\u00a0 And I\u2019ve been to Israel and I\u2019ve seen the temple, I should have brought some pictures with me, it has been torn down brick by brick, exactly like Jesus said would happen.\u00a0 Now why?\u00a0 Look at this, \u201cbecause you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d\u00a0 Why emphasize \u201ctime\u201d?\u00a0 Because Daniel\u2019s prophecy of the 70 weeks predicts the exact day that Jesus would show up.\u00a0 You should have recognized the time of your coming Messiah; you should have recognized the time when the kingdom would be offered.\u00a0 See, \u201cto whom much is given much is\u201d what?\u00a0 Expected.\u00a0 God expected His chosen people to respond properly to all these prophecies and they didn\u2019t so they went back under the discipline of the Mosaic Covenant which was meted out this time, not by the Assyrians, not by the Babylonians but by the Romans.\n\nAnd this is why Peter, on the day of Pentecost, go over to Acts 2:40.\u00a0 Peter is preaching the gospel on the day of Pentecost and it says this, recording Peter\u2019s words; this is the beginning of the church age now.\u00a0 \u201cAnd with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, \u2018Be saved from this perverse generation!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 See when Peter preached the gospel on the day of Pentecost he was preaching totally to a Jewish crowd on a Jewish feast day.\u00a0 And what he is telling people to do is \u201cbe saved from this perverse generation!\u201d\u00a0 In other words, get saved and come out of the nation of Israel.\u00a0 Why do you need to come out of the nation of Israel?\u00a0 Because the nation of Israel is under discipline, the discipline is coming in A.D. 70.\n\nSo the discipline is on the horizon; the discipline indeed is coming so consequently the nation of Israel, in Peter\u2019s sermon here, is viewed as a perverse generation that Christ\u2019s followers in the church age are to separate themselves from.\u00a0 See, this expression, \u201cperverse generation\u201d doesn\u2019t make any sense unless you understand everything that was said thus far, that the nation rejected the offer of the kingdom and they were put back under the curses of the Mosaic Covenant, and the Roman incursion is just around the corner a few decades later.\n\nVerse 41 says, \u201cSo then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls,\u201d now we look at that and we say whoa, look at the miracle, 3,000 people got saved and it was a miracle, I\u2019m not trying to downplay it but 3,000 people is not a lot of people compared to the million that didn\u2019t get saved.\u00a0 Josephus, in his writings, talks about there could have been as many\u2026 I can\u2019t remember his exact number but it\u2019s an astronomical number of Jews could have been there on the day of Pentecost celebrating that feast.\u00a0 So of all of the people that could have gotten saved a remnant got saved and so let\u2019s not downplay what happened in Acts 2 but let\u2019s not overplay it either.\n\nIn fact, I was looking at a kids coloring book of the book of Ezekiel because my daughter and I are reading through the book of Ezekiel just before she goes to bed in the evening and I\u2019m always looking for kids type things, coloring books that would make the book more enjoyable for a ten year old, almost an 11 year old, and I found a coloring book in a Christian bookstore and they got to Ezekiel 36 and 37 and I was so excited because that\u2019s my favorite part of the book and this coloring book gives you the impression that Ezekiel 36 and 37, the dry bones being regathered, was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. I was very disappointed so I had to get rid of that coloring book because Ezekiel 36 and 37 is talking about something way bigger than happened on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 It\u2019s talking about the conversion of a nation.\u00a0 I love the day of Pentecost and I don\u2019t want to downplay its miraculous nature but it\u2019s no Ezekiel 36 and 37, I\u2019ll tell you that much.\n\nIn fact, I was listening to an amillennial preacher and he was preaching through the book of Ezekiel and he got to Ezekiel 37 and he says this prophecy was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 And he stopped reading at verse 10 and I kept saying to myself, I wish he would read verse 11 because when you look at Ezekiel 37:11 of the valley of dry bones, it says this, \u201cThen He said to me, \u2018Son of man, these bones are the\u201d what?\u00a0 The church of Jesus Christ on the day of Pentecost\u2026 it doesn\u2019t say that!\u00a0 \u201cThese bones are the whole house of Israel; [behold, they say, \u2018Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.\u2019]\u00a0 So there are greater things coming in the future that far transcend the day of Pentecost.\n\nSo the say of Pentecost is not any kind of fulfillment of Ezekiel 36 and 37; what it is a remnant believed and separated from that generation that was under a curse because of the discipline that was about to be meted out through Titus of Rome.\u00a0 And\u00a0 yet through this whole exchange of events God took lemons and turned it into what?\u00a0 Lemonade.\u00a0 Through this whole exchange of events our sin debt was paid for.\u00a0 Through this whole exchange of events, as tragic as it is, God started in Acts 2, the church, the body of Christ which we are all part of.\u00a0 So God is sort of a specialist in taking tragic events and bringing something good out of them.\u00a0 And that\u2019s Paul\u2019s point in Romans 11.\u00a0 He says if God could use the tragedy of Israel\u2019s rejection of her King to bring out something good, just think the greater blessings that are going to come when the nation of Israel is restored one day.\u00a0 And there he\u2019s talking about the coming kingdom.\u00a0 So he\u2019s arguing from the lesser to the greater.\n\nAnd the third part of this, which I\u2019m not going to do tonight because I\u2019m out of time, we\u2019ve studied how the offer of the kingdom was presented up to Matthew 12.\u00a0 The big question is did that offer keep getting preached in the book of Acts and there\u2019s a lot of confusion on that and so next week I\u2019ll be giving you ten reasons why I don\u2019t think that\u2019s true.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the offer of the kingdom is being preached in Acts; there\u2019s something totally new going on in the book of Acts called the baptizing ministry of the Holy Spirit which is of the work through the body of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s the story of the book of Acts.\u00a0 And I know some have differences of opinion with me on that and there\u2019s good people on both sides of that but I\u2019ll try to sell you on the idea that the offer of the kingdom stopped being preached in Matthew 12.\u00a0 Anyway, that\u2019s for next week. We\u2019ll just continue on with chapter 8 and we\u2019ll look at that next time and I\u2019m going to stop talking at this point, I actually ended\u2026 someone needs to take a picture of the clock, I ended one minute early.\u00a0 And if you have to pick up your kids and so forth you\u2019re free to go and if you want to stick around for Q and A we can do that.","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