{"id":19207,"date":"2017-11-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-15T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-027\/"},"modified":"2017-11-15T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-15T06:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-027","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-027\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 027"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19207","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 027","sermon_date":"20171115","sermon_month":"11","sermon_year":"2017","sermon_notes":5156,"sermon_slides":5155,"sermon_mp3":5157,"sermon_id":"1115171827131","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"14:16-17","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n11-15-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John 14:16-17\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 27\n\nIf we could take our Bibles and open them to John\u2019s Gospel, chapter 14:16-17.\u00a0\u00a0 Thank you Jim for the prayer, directing prayer.\u00a0 Do you guys ever look at your calendar?\u00a0 \u00a0I was looking at my calendar the other day so let me review that with you, not the whole calendar,\u00a0 just the part that concerns you.\u00a0 Tonight is the 15th<\/sup> so next week is the 22nd<\/sup>; that\u2019s one day before Thanksgiving so we\u2019re not going to be meeting on the 22nd<\/sup>; we want\u00a0 you to be prepared to eat a lot of food the next day so we don\u2019t want to wreck that with a Bible study.\u00a0 I\u2019m just kidding of course!\u00a0 So if you come here next week and no one\u2019s here you\u2019re going to think you missed the rapture.\n\nBut then we\u2019re coming back on the 29the, we\u2019re going to meet on the 29th<\/sup> and then December 6 will be the last Wednesday night Bible study in 2017.\u00a0 And we\u2019re going to meet again, I believe January 3, so we\u2019re just going to pick up January 3 where we left off on December 6.\u00a0 And Dec 13th<\/sup> is Gingerbread houses, and then December 19th<\/sup> there\u2019s nothing going on at the church that Wednesday I don\u2019t think.\u00a0 And December 27th<\/sup> there\u2019s nothing going on at church.\u00a0 In other words, we have tonight and the 29th<\/sup> and the 6th <\/sup>and we won\u2019t be teaching Wednesday nights any more for to17.\u00a0 But I invite you to come to the gingerbread house event December 13th<\/sup>.\n\nLet\u2019s open our Bibles to John 14:16-17.\u00a0 And we\u2019re continuing to deal with this whole subject of the kingdom so really we\u2019re taking a look at what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 This is number 27 so there\u2019s a lot of ground that we\u2019ve covered. We\u2019ve developed the concept of the kingdom from the Old Testament and we basically saw, if you look at number 9, that was what was offered to the nation of Israel on a silver platter in the first century with the coming of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s actually number 8.\n\nNumber 9, tragically the nation of Israel turned down that offer and the moment that happened is the moment the human race was thrust into a time period where the kingdom would not be cancelled but postponed.\u00a0 And because God never leaves the earth without a witness of Himself, even though the kingdom is not here and hasn\u2019t been here for the last 2,000 years God is still at work. Amen!\u00a0 It\u2019s just a present work of God shouldn\u2019t be confused with the kingdom; it\u2019s rather something that we call the interim age.\u00a0 And the interim age consists of two ingredients, as we have studied: number 1, the interadvent age parables, and those are found in Matthew 13, there\u2019s 8 parables, so we walked through each of those and basically saw that God is clearly at work (as these 8 parables indicate) but it\u2019s not to be confused with the kingdom.\n\nThe second thing a person needs to understand, and this is what most directly impacts our lives, the second thing a person needs to understand or to grasp the interim program of God is the institution of the church.\u00a0 That is the time period that we\u2019re living in now, we\u2019ve been living in that time period for 2,000 years; it\u2019s not the kingdom but it\u2019s called the age of the church.\u00a0 So to help us understand the age of the church we decided to break this down into five parts.\n\nWe looked at, number 1, the definition of the church.\u00a0 The church is basically a spiritual man consisting of people, both Jew and Gentile, who have trusted in the Messiah that Israel rejected in the first century.\u00a0 We looked at the beginning of the church.\u00a0 Does anybody remember when the church began.\u00a0 Acts 2, and I gave you I think six reasons why that is so.\u00a0 Then we looked at number 3, what is the church supposed to be doing.\u00a0 And these are the purposes of the church.\u00a0 The church basically has three functions, they are to glorify God, edify the saints, and fulfill the great commission.\u00a0 We walked through those.\u00a0 And then number 4 I tried to show you very carefully that the church is not the kingdom and that\u2019s where the confusion is today; people are equating church and kingdom.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t want you to believe something just because I say it\u2019s true; I gave you 13 reasons why what is happening today in the church is very, very different than what is prophesied or predicted concerning the kingdom.\n\nAnd then number 5 we moved into, and this is where we\u2019ve been the last few weeks, the idea that the church is not Israel.\u00a0 Why is that a big deal?\u00a0 Because God predicted, based on His covenants, that the kingdom would come to the earth through which nation?\u00a0 The nation of Israel.\u00a0 We looked at Old Testament passages, New Testament passages that teach that.\u00a0 So if you can demonstrate that the church is not Israel you can demonstrate that the church is not the kingdom.\u00a0 And one of the most fundamental rules of Bible study that you could ever learn is to properly distinguish Israel from the church.\u00a0\u00a0 Israel and the church are like two trains on different railroad tracks; they represent separate programs of God.\n\nSo to help us grow in understanding what we were talking about is 24 differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 There\u2019s the first eight we walked through. There\u2019s the next eight we walked through and we walked through number 17 and this is where we left off last time, the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Israel and the church are different in all of these areas, including how the Holy Spirit is at work today.\u00a0 The way the Holy Spirit is at work today is different than any other age that\u2019s ever existed.\u00a0 We are literally living in what I would call the age of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is doing things today, as He\u2019s been doing over the last 2,000 years in the church age that He has never done before.\u00a0 And if the people in Old Testament times could see what the Holy Spirit would do one day\u00a0 in the age of the church, I think they would be astounded at the privileges that we have today in the Holy Spirit, just by virtue of the time period that we\u2019re living in.\n\nHere\u2019s a chart that shows you what the Holy Spirit did in the prior age.\u00a0 And remember the prior age consists of the Old Testament and it also consists of the Gospels because Jesus, in His earthly ministry was not ministering under the age of the church.\u00a0 He was predicting the age of the church but His ministry did not take place during the age of the Church; His ministry took place during the age of the Law.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Book of Galatians, chapter 4 and verse 4 says, \u201cBut when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the \u2026\u201d what\u2019s the rest of it, \u201cthe Law.\u201d\n\nA lot of people have this view that well, if it\u2019s in the New Testament it\u2019s the church and the reality of the situation is Jesus\u2019 whole ministry occurred before the church age started.\u00a0 The church age doesn\u2019t start until Acts 2; Jesus is on the earth all the way till Acts 1.\u00a0 So He is ministering under the prior dispensation of the Law.\u00a0 And so that Old Testament dispensation has to also include the gospel material, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.\u00a0 Not that there aren\u2019t things in the Gospels that don\u2019t speak directly to us and relate to us, I\u2019m not denying that. But you have to kind of get a grasp on the idea that the gospel is really part of the prior dispensation.\u00a0 And we don\u2019t normally think that way because the Gospels are in the New Testament.\u00a0 But in the mind of God the great break with the Old Testament age doesn\u2019t really occur until Acts 2.\n\nSo when you study the Old Testament and the Gospels and compare it to what the Holy Spirit is doing today the ministry of the Holy Spirit dramatically changed in Acts 2.\u00a0 And I have here three ways it changed: Number 1, in the prior age people oftentimes received the Holy Spirit long after they were believers.\u00a0 So a person could believe in a coming Messiah and be saved, as was Abraham, if they had no contact with the Holy Spirit until a later point in time in their personal lives.\u00a0 A good example of this is the tabernacle workers Bezalel and I keep forgetting the other guy\u2019s name but in Exodus 31:3 the Holy Spirit came upon them. [Exodus 31:2-3, \u201cSee, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah\u00a0 [3] I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship.\u201d] Obviously they were believers because they were working on the tabernacle, but the Holy Spirit came upon them long after their personal salvation in order to equip them for the task of building the tabernacle.\u00a0 And the Holy Spirit gave them all kinds of skill in carpentry and construction and building, but they didn\u2019t receive that ministry until long after they were already believers.\u00a0 See that?\n\nNow compare that to today; when do you get the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 At the point of faith!\u00a0 How do we know that?\u00a0 Because of Romans 8:9 where Paul says, \u201cBut if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.\u201d\u00a0 So what is normative in our age is a person believes and immediately their body is indwelt by the Holy Spirit; their body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And because this is so normal in Christianity we think that\u2019s the way it\u2019s always been but it has not always been that way.\u00a0 In fact, what the Holy Spirit is doing today, indwelling every child of God at the point of faith, is something that does not happen in the Old Testament age.\n\nAnother big difference is how long is the Holy Spirit in people for?\u00a0 When you back into the prior age what you discover is that the Holy Spirit could come upon a person for a specific task and then the Holy Spirit can leave.\u00a0 You see that happening with Saul in 1 Samuel 16:14.\u00a0 [1 Samuel 16:14, \u201cNow the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.\u201d\u00a0 And this is why David, in Psalm 51:11 prays, \u201ctake not thy\u201d what? \u201cHoly Spirit from me.\u201d\u00a0 And I think I mentioned last time I was in a youth group, one time I used to be a youth believe it or not, back when the earth\u2019s crust was cooling, and we would sing songs and things, and one of the songs we would sing is Psalm 51:11, (I won\u2019t sing it for you, that\u2019s not my spiritual gift) but it was a song and we would sing \u201ctake not thy Holy Spirit from me.\u201d\u00a0 And then I started thinking, why are we singing this because we\u2019re living in a different age than David was in 1000 B.C. when he wrote that Psalm, when the Holy Spirit could come and depart from people.\n\nThe age we\u2019re living in is the age of the church where the Holy Spirit is in you for how long?\u00a0 Forever.\u00a0 Now how do I know that?\u00a0 Because Jesus, in the Upper Room is ministering under the dispensation of the Law, the change hadn\u2019t happened yet until Acts 2, but in the\u00a0 Upper Room Discourse He begins to give hints of a change that\u2019s coming.\n\nAnd in John 14:16-17 He says, \u201cI will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper,\u201d now the word \u201cHelper\u201d there is the word Paraclete, or the one who comes alongside and assists, and this is speaking of the third member of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And they\u2019re all upset at this point because He\u2019s giving hints of His soon departure and He\u2019s trying to calm them down by saying it\u2019s actually to your advantage, and they\u2019re very upset over news of His departure.\u00a0 And you can imagine why because He had been with them for over three years and He was personally mentoring them and all of a sudden He starts talking about His departure.\n\nAnd so in the Upper Room Discourse He\u2019s basically saying you know what, it\u2019s actually to your advantage that I go, because when I go the Paraclete will come and I, through the Holy Spirit, will be intimate with all of you whereas when Jesus was on the earth He was only intimate with twelve disciples and even within that group of twelve there was a smaller group of three, consisting of Peter, James and John.\u00a0 But now we\u2019re moving into a new age where Jesus is going to be crucified, He\u2019s going to rise from the dead, He\u2019s going to ascend back to the Father\u2019s right hand, and He\u2019s going to give to us the Holy Spirit which will be in every single child of God.\u00a0 And that is a dramatic shift.\u00a0 I think their jaws probably dropped to the ground when He started informing them of this.\n\n\u201cI will ask\u00a0\u00a0 that He may be with you forever;\u201d now that\u2019s not how it worked in the Old Testament, as I\u2019ve tried to explain.\u00a0 He goes and says, \u00a0[17] \u201cthat is<\/em> the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him,\u201d now look what He says here, \u201cbut<\/em> you know Him [because He abides with you and will be in you.]\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You shouldn\u2019t get the impression that the Holy Spirit had zero ministry in the Old Testament.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit is extremely active in the Old Testament; the Holy Spirit is active as early as Genesis 1:2 where the Spirit was hovering on the waters there in creation.\u00a0 And you see glimpses of the Spirit\u2019s activity with the tabernacle workers coming upon certain kings for their tasks and other things.\u00a0 So they knew about the Holy Spirit.\n\nBut what was new is the Spirit would be \u201cin\u201d them and \u201cwith\u201d them forever.\u00a0 He says, \u201cyou know Him because He abides with you,\u201d so they knew a little something about the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 But then He says He \u201cwill be in you\u201d\u00a0 forever.\u00a0 And that is a dramatic change in the rules that the Holy Spirit is going to begin to operate by in the church age as compared to Old Testament Israel.\n\nNumber 3, who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think in Old Testament times every believer was indwelt by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Why do I say that?\u00a0 Because Joel 2:28 talks about a time that would come when the Spirit would be poured out on all flesh.\u00a0 [Joel 2:28, \u201cIt will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions.\u201d]\u00a0 And understand that to mean every child of God, all of Israel would experience the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And if the Holy Spirit was already in everybody who was a believer that would be no front page news, would it?\u00a0 One day the Holy Spirit is going to poured out on all flesh, they would just be yawning, tell me something I don\u2019t know.\u00a0 So that statement, in order for it to have gravity has to mean that the Holy Spirit was not indwelling every child of God.\n\nBut compare that to the church age; compare that to today.\u00a0 Who does the Holy Spirit indwell? Everyone that\u2019s a Christian.\u00a0 Everyone that is a believer in Christ, who has received the new birth, which is the only kind of Christian you can have, is indwelt forever by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 And this is what\u00a0 Paul is getting at when he writes to the Corinthians in the New Testament.\u00a0 He says, \u201cFor by one Spirit we were\u201d what? \u201call\u201d that word \u201call\u201d is huge, VERY important because Paul is also revealing that what is happening with the church age and the Holy Spirit is different than what happened in the prior age.\u00a0 \u201cFor by one Spirit we were all baptized, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, we were\u201d what?\u00a0 He says it again, \u201call made to drink of one Spirit.\u201d\n\nAnd keep in mind who he\u2019s talking to here\u2026 the Corinthians; they\u2019re not necessarily known for their exemplary spiritual lives are they?\u00a0 But even to that carnal crowd, and they happened to be believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, even they in their carnal state were \u201call baptized\u201d by one Spirit. \u00a0So that is a privilege that is happening today that the Old Testament saints couldn\u2019t even fathom; couldn\u2019t even dream about.\u00a0 So we take the Holy Spirit for granted but we have to understand that we\u2019re living in the age of the Holy Spirit where the Holy Spirit is doing things today in the age of the church that has never happened before in biblical history.\n\nSo we receive the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation; the Holy Spirit is in us forever and everyone that is a child of God is indwelt by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 That is why you cannot define the pattern of the Holy Spirit\u2019s present activity from the Old Testament.\u00a0 And you can\u2019t even define the present work of the Holy Spirit\u2019s activity today through the Gospels.\u00a0 You have to go to Acts 2 and go forward.\u00a0 Jesus is only giving hints of the change; the actual change doesn\u2019t occur until Acts 2.\u00a0 And all the way through the Gospels Jesus is making a hint of a transition that\u2019s coming.\n\nFor example, in John 7:37 and 39 it says, \u201cNow on the last day, the great day<\/em> of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, \u201cIf anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.\u201d \u00a0[38<\/a>]\u201cHe who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, \u2018From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.\u2019\u201d\n\nNow this is John\u2019s commentary on what Jesus was saying, [39] \u201cBut this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet\u201d what? \u201cgiven,<\/em> because Jesus was not yet\u201d what? \u201cglorified.\u201d When would He be glorified?\u00a0 Acts 1. So His first order of business as high priest, once He ascended to his position of glory which He had with the Father before the world was, His first order of business was to make good on these promises and to give the Holy Spirit.\n\nBut here John is indicating that the shift hadn\u2019t happened yet.\u00a0 So Jesus here is announcing something that\u2019s right around the corner. We\u2019re already read John 14:16-17, the Spirit will be in you and with you \u201cforever\u201d!\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t be a very big announcement, would it, if that ministry was already happening by the Holy Spirit.\n\nAnd you recall what Jesus said in Acts 1:5, this is post cross, post resurrection, the ascension is coming in that same chapter, and before Jesus ascends He said, \u201cFor John baptized with water but you\u201d that\u2019s the disciples, \u201cwill\u201d future tense \u201cbe baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.\u201d I think there He\u2019s predicting the Day of Pentecost where the shift would occur beginning in Acts 2.\n\nSo what is the bottom line?\u00a0 The bottom line is\u00a0 you cannot find\u00a0 define what the Spirit is doing today based on a reading of the Old Testament or even a reading of the gospels.\u00a0 The gospels, the very best they\u2019re going to give you is hints of the change but the actual change doesn\u2019t start until Acts 2.\u00a0 This is important to understand because we\u2019re talking about the differences between Israel and the church.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s relationship with the Holy Spirit was completely and totally different than our relationship with the Holy Spirit today.\u00a0 And I hope that makes you feel blessed and privileged because that\u2019s what you are.\u00a0 That\u2019s what we are.\u00a0 You\u2019re blessed because of the time period you\u2019re living in.\n\nLet me take you to another major difference between Israel and the church and that has to do with the farewell address.\u00a0 Remember George Washington\u2019s farewell address?\u00a0 The Lord gave a farewell address to Israel in what is called the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 And He gave another farewell address to the soon to be birthed church and that\u2019s called the Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 I mean, if Israel and the church are the same then why do we have two farewell addresses on the same week as the Passion Week, the final week of Christ\u2019s life prior to His crucifixion.\u00a0 So notice this chart here, it shows\u00a0 you the differences between the Olivet Discourse and the Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 \u00a0The Olivet Discourse is found in Matthew 24-25.\u00a0 The Upper Room Discourse is found in John 13-17.\u00a0 The Olivet Discourse takes place on the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 I asked one of my classes one time why do we call it the Olivet Discourse and someone said well, that\u2019s because we get all of it, and that would be a wrong answer.\u00a0 It really isn\u2019t even a discourse, it\u2019s a conversation and it takes place on the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 He\u2019s asked a question about the temple\u2019s destruction and He begins to describe the future of Israel in the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 The Upper Room Discourse takes place in the Upper Room, two different locations.\n\nThe Olivet Discourse take place on the third day of the Passion week.\u00a0 The Upper Room Discourse takes place on a totally different day; it would be day six of the Passion week.\u00a0 So what is the focus of the Olivet Discourse ?\u00a0 Jesus is saying farewell to Israel and He, in the process, is outlining for Israel her future.\u00a0 If you look for just a moment at Matthew 24 you see it gets really Jewish, this Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 You see, for example, in verse 15, \u201cTherefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken through the prophet, Daniel,\u201d now you guys know something about the seventy weeks, right?\u00a0 Remember my ten facts about the seventy weeks prophecy?\u00a0 What was the first fact?\u00a0 The seventy weeks prophecy concerns who?\u00a0 Israel.\u00a0 Seventy sevens are decreed, Daniel, for your people and your city.\u00a0\u00a0 [Daniel 9:24, \u201cSeventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s why Jesus is making reference to that seventy weeks prophecy there in verse 15.\n\nAnd then if you drop down to verse 20, this is what the Jews are supposed to do when they see the temple desecrated midway through the tribulation period.\u00a0 \u201cBut pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 24:20]\u00a0 Now doesn\u2019t that sound Jewish.\u00a0 He\u2019s speaking to Jews.\u00a0 He\u2019s telling the Jews what they\u2019re to do when they see the temple desecrated.\u00a0 So what Jesus is doing is He\u2019s saying farewell to Israel, but He\u2019s outlining her future; He\u2019s outlining the circum\u00adstances through which unbelieving Israel will be brought to faith in Christ in the events of the tribulation period.\n\nNow compare that to the Upper Room Discourse, He\u2019s not saying farewell to Israel at all; He\u2019s saying hello to the what?\u00a0 The church; He is revealing something that is yet future concerning the church.\u00a0 So Matthew 24, goodbye Israel; Upper Room Discourse, hello church. \u00a0What is the specific focus of the Olivet Discourse?\u00a0 It\u2019s Israel\u2019s future.\u00a0 It\u2019s basically how Israel is going to be brought to Christ in the events of the tribulation period.\u00a0 What is His focus in the Upper Room Discourse?\u00a0 Divine provisions for the church.\u00a0 And His whole point is it\u2019s actually to your advantage that I\u2019m leaving because when I leave and I ascend back to My position of glory at the Father\u2019s right hand the Holy Spirit will be poured out in an unprecedented way.\u00a0 And He specifically told them in Acts 1, before He ascended, to wait in Jerusalem until \u201cyou are clothed from on high by the Holy Spirit.\u201d\u00a0 [Luke 24:49, \u201cAnd behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.\u201d]\n\nAnd frankly, the New Testament church would have never gotten anywhere, they would have never gotten off the ground if they had ignored that command.\u00a0 If they had just gone out and done the work of God through human power, without the Holy Spirit, Christian would have sputtered out a long time ago.\u00a0 And yet here we are 2,000 years later, on a different continent as members of Christ\u2019s church, and that has to be the work of the Holy Spirit.\n\nWhat prompted the Olivet Discourse?\u00a0 It concerned Jewish questions, questions about the temple for example.\u00a0\u00a0 So when you go to Matthew 24:1-2 it says, \u201cJesus came out from the temple\u201d see the Jewish focus here, \u201cand was going away when His disciples came up to point out the temple buildings to Him. [2] And He said to them, \u2018Do you not see all these things? Truly I say to you, not one stone here will be left upon another, which will not be torn down.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Now there He\u2019s making a prediction about something that\u2019s about to happen about forty years later, the events of A.D. 70, because Israel is under discipline because they rejected the offer of the kingdom in Matthew 12.\u00a0 So Israel is under the suzerain vassal Mosaic Covenant, as we have studied, and part of that covenant is blessings and curses.\n\nSo just as Israel in the Old Testament was brought into captivity at the hands of the Babylonians, and the northern kingdom was scattered by the Assyrians, as Yogi Bera said \u201cit\u2019s d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu <\/em>all over again. all over again.\u201d\u00a0 The same cycles of discipline are about to happen again, this time at the hands of the Romans; not the Babylonians or the Assyrians but the Romans because Israel is still under that Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 And this announcement of the temple\u2019s destruction really bothered the disciples because this was the temple that the Babylonian returnees had rebuilt as recorded in the Book of Ezra.\u00a0 And over in John 2:20 there\u2019s a reference to how Herod had taken that temple and built it into a beautiful, magnificent edifice.\u00a0 [John 2:20, \u201cThe Jews then said, \u2018It took forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?\u2019\u201d]\u00a0 Josephus goes into great detail explaining the glamor of that temple and Jesus is saying the whole thing is going to be torn down forty years from now.\u00a0 Now He doesn\u2019t give the date but in hindsight we can look back and see when Christ\u2019s prophecy was fulfilled.\n\nAnd it says in verse 3, [Matthew 24:3] \u201cAs He was sitting on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately,\u201d I mean, they were shook up by this, they \u201ccame to Him privately, saying, \u2018Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So they connected the temple\u2019s destruction with the end of the age.\u00a0 And so what does Jesus start talking about?\u00a0 He starts answering their question in Matthew 24 and 25 about the end of the age, and in the process He is outlining Israel\u2019s future, how she\u2019s going to be brought to Christ under great distress.\n\nNow switch over to the Upper Room Discourse; that\u2019s not what Jesus is talking about at all.\u00a0 In the Upper Room Discourse what prompted the questions from the disciples was His announcement that he was leaving and this very much bothered them.\u00a0 For example, if you look over at John 13, which is the beginning of the Upper Room Discourse, John 13, it says, \u201cNow before the Feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world to the Father\u2026.\u201d \u00a0See to interpret these two discourses you have to pay attention to the questions that start each discourse.\u00a0 In Matthew 24 and 25, in the Olivet Discourse the question is all about the temple.\u00a0 But in John 13-17 the initial questions are about His announcement of His soon departure and this is where He begins to explain to them that it\u2019s to their advantage that I go away because when I go away the Holy Spirit is going to come and He begins to outline the future provisions, not for Israel but for what?\u00a0 For the church, which concerns and includes us, doesn\u2019t it.\n\nIn the Olivet Discourse what is He explaining exactly?\u00a0 In the Olivet Discourse He is explaining written Old Testament concepts so the nation of Israel already knew from their own Bible, Hebrew Bible, that there would be a time of distress and Israel would be converted through this time of distress.\u00a0 Now what Scripture did they have that we spent a lot of time on Sunday morning studying?\u00a0 They had the Seventy Weeks Prophecy.\u00a0 They had other Scriptures too, they had the Book of Jeremiah, chapter 30 and verse 7, which talks about a time of unparalleled distress for Jacob.\u00a0 Now who was Jacob?\u00a0 Jacob is Israel.\u00a0 Jeremiah 30:7 talks about an unparalleled time of distress for Jacob but he will be saved out of it.\u00a0 [Jeremiah 30:7, \u201c'Alas! for that day is great, There is none like it; And it is the time of Jacob's distress, But he will be saved from it.\u201d]\u00a0 So they already knew about a time of distress that would come through which Israel would be converted and all Jesus is doing in Matthew 24 and 25 is he\u2019s taking those Old Testament ideas and expanding on them, and that\u2019s what you have going on in Matthew 24 and 25.\n\nNow switch over to the Upper Room Discourse; Jesus is not explaining the Old Testament at all in John 13-17.\u00a0 In fact, as you travel through John 13-17, other than the brief references, the Old Testa\u00adment references to Judas\u2019 betrayal of Christ, to my knowledge there\u2019s not a single Old Testament verse quoted.\u00a0 So what Jesus is doing in the Upper Room Discourse is He\u2019s not elucidating or expanding upon written Old Testament material, he\u2019s already done that three days earlier in the Olivet Discourse.\u00a0 What He is talking about is unwritten New Testament material which would be the canon of Scripture that we call the New Testament that hadn\u2019t even been written yet.\u00a0 And this is when He begins to talk about things like, \u201cWhen the Spirit comes,\u201d John 16:12-13, \u201cHe will guide you into\u201d what? \u201call truth.\u00a0 [John 16:12, \u201c\u2018I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.\u00a0 [13] But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.\u201d]\n\nAnd He says things like there are many things I have to tell you but you\u2019re not yet able to receive them because the Spirit hadn\u2019t been poured out yet.\u00a0 \u201cBut when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will\u201d what? \u201cguide you into all truth.\u201d So what He is explaining there is a body of material that is coming that is yet future, called the 27 books of the New Testament that the apostles, or the disciples that he\u2019s addressing in the Upper Room, He\u2019s only addressing eleven people in the Upper Room, all eleven people are believers because Judas, the only unbeliever, left the group in John 13.\u00a0 So He\u2019s only addressing these disciples; He is saying, \u201cI\u2019ve got many things to tell you but you can\u2019t bear them now, but when He, the Spirit of truth\u00a0 comes He will guide you into all truth.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s speaking of a coming New Testament canon that the disciples He\u2019s talking about are going to be responsible for writing, primarily.\n\nSo do you see the difference?\u00a0 Olivet Discourse He\u2019s basically expanding upon, elucidating Old Testament material; Upper Room Discourse He\u2019s talking about a body of material, the 27 Books of the New Testament that are yet to be written.\u00a0 So I guess what I\u2019m trying to get at is there is a world of difference between the Olivet Discourse and the Upper Room Discourse.\n\nAnd here is what\u2019s happening today with a lot of people; they\u2019re trying to build their rapture doctrine and they\u2019re all going over to Matthew 24 and 25 to do it and that is wrong right out of the gate because the rapture concerns the church and Matthew 24 and 25 concerns Israel.\u00a0 So because people aren\u2019t able to make this basic distinction they\u2019re basically fishing in the wrong pond.\u00a0 They\u2019re looking in the wrong place for truth.\u00a0 If you want to find truth related to the church, which would include the rapture, you don\u2019t go to Matthew 24 and 25; you go to John 14:1-3 which I believe is the first reference to the rapture.\n\nWhat Jesus is doing\u00a0 in the Upper Room Discourse is He\u2019s revealing truth in germ form, or seed form, that is going to be watered and amplified by the New Testament writers and those New Testament writers are the who?\u00a0 The apostles.\u00a0 So the rapture is in John 14:1-4.\u00a0 That\u2019s the first reference to the rapture.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cDo not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. [2] In My Father\u2019s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.\u00a0 [3] If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there<\/em> you may be also.\u00a0 [4] And you know the way where I am going .\u201d There in infant form is the rapture doctrine.\n\nAnd in fact there\u2019s a scholar, I wish I\u2019d brought in my chart as I\u2019m talking about it, but there\u2019s a scholar, I believe he was Mennonite, if I\u2019m not mistaken, he compared John 14:1-4 to the key rapture passage in the New Testament, which is where?\u00a0 Anybody know?\u00a0 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, and he say there\u2019s a one to one parallel, eight parallels and they line up exactly\u00a0 which would be in defiance, wouldn\u2019t if, of the law of probability.\u00a0 And it\u2019s conceptually starting with sorrow and I\u2019m coming again and J.B. Smith (at some point I\u2019ll be showing you this chart if I haven\u2019t shown it to you already) lines them up identically.\u00a0 \u00a0We would expect that, wouldn\u2019t we, because Jesus, in the Upper Room Discourse is giving seed truth that is going to be later watered by the apostles in the 27 New Testament books that we call the New Testament.\n\nAnd it\u2019s not just true with the rapture; I have another chart which I wish I\u2019d brought in, which shows you verse by verse almost every single doctrine you can think of in the New Testament letters has its roots, not in the Olivet Discourse but in the Upper Room Discourse.\u00a0 So obviously Israel and the church are completely different because Israel and the church have two different farewell addresses.\u00a0\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\u00a0 They had a totally different relationship with the Holy Spirit than we have and they also had a totally different farewell address.\n\nAnother difference, I think I can do this one a little faster; the designation, what is the nation of Israel called?\u00a0 She is called God\u2019s firstborn what?\u00a0 Son.\u00a0 Exodus 4:22, concerning the upcoming Exodus event, says this, \u201cThen you shall say to Pharaoh, \u2018Thus says the LORD, \u201cIsrael is My son, My firstborn.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 Now have you ever wondered why God, in plague 10,\u00a0 in Egypt killed all of the firstborn all over Egypt?\u00a0 It\u2019s related to this right here, Exodus 4:22.\u00a0 Remember what God said in the Abrahamic Covenant to Israel?\u00a0 \u201cThe one who curses you I will curse.\u201d\u00a0 So Egypt, you mess with My firstborn son, guess what I\u2019m going to do?\u00a0 I\u2019m going after your firstborn.\u00a0 And that\u2019s an outworking of Exodus 4:22 and Genesis 12:3, \u201cI will curse those who curse you.\u201d\n\nBy the way, have you ever wondered why God drowned\u00a0 the pursuing Egyptians in the Red Sea?\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I mean God could have killed off those Egyptians any way He wanted to; he could have sent a hurricane, a lightning bolt, an earthquake, He could have opened up the ground like He did in the Book of Numbers and swallowed up the Egyptian army.\u00a0 He parted the Red Sea as you know from the Bible, that nation was going to cross through the parted waters, so they got to the other side, the Egyptians foolishly went through the parted river and God closed the waters and drowned them.\u00a0 Why would he drown them?\u00a0 Well, it goes back to Exodus 1.\u00a0 What were the Egyptians doing with his people?\u00a0 They were drowning the babies as you\u2019ll remember, in the Nile, and God says okay,\u00a0 you drown My people Egypt, I\u2019m going to drown\u00a0 you.\u00a0 Genesis 12:3, \u201cthose that curse you I will curse.\u201d\u00a0 [Genesis 12:3, \u201cAnd I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.\u201d]\n\nSo the nation of Israel is called God\u2019s firstborn son and apparently when\u00a0 you read the rest of the Bible God takes that pretty seriously.\u00a0 The church, on the other hand, is never designated that way.\u00a0 We are never called God\u2019s firstborn son; our designation is the bride of Christ.\u00a0 So we\u2019re designated something completely and totally different than the nation of Israel.\n\nNow how about this one here: Revelation in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Is the nation of Israel revealed in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Of course!\u00a0 Beginning in which chapter?\u00a0 Genesis 12 forward it\u2019s all about Israel.\u00a0 And the nation of Israel continues to be spoken of in the New Testament, doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Paul, in Romans 9, 10 and 11 deal specifically with the nation of Israel?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t he deal with Israel\u2019s future in Romans 11.\u00a0 Now Paul is not coming along and reteaching everything in the Old Testament; if he came along and retaught everything in the Old Testament we wouldn\u2019t need an Old Testament.\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 So the New Testament is not going to be redundant; it\u2019s not going to restate everything that\u2019s already been spelled out in the Old Testament.\u00a0 It will just kind of sum up things at key points.\n\nSo the nation of Israel is a two testament people group.\u00a0 They are dominant in the Old Testament and they are spoken of quite frequently in the New Testament.\u00a0 Now compare that to the church.\u00a0 Is the church found in the New Testament?\u00a0 Yes it is.\u00a0 Is the church found anywhere in the Old Testament?\u00a0 There\u2019s not a single word about the church in the Old Testament.\u00a0 You can read the Old Testament until your eyeballs bleed and you will not find any reference to the church as a new man consisting of Jews and Gentiles in one new spiritual man.\u00a0 You won\u2019t find that church age concept anywhere in the Old Testament.\n\nAnd to be completely honest with you it\u2019s hardly even mentioned by Christ in the Gospels.\u00a0 Christ is functioning in His ministry under the Old Testament Law. Israel and the offer to Israel of the kingdom and her turning down of that offer is still center stage.\u00a0 It\u2019s really not until Matthew 16:18 where Jesus says, \u201cI will build My\u201d what? \u201cchurch, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 You say church? What church?\u00a0 And notice the verb \u201cbuild\u201d is in which tense.\u00a0 Future tense meaning the church was not something contemporaneous with Christ, it wasn\u2019t going on with Christ, it was something totally future.\n\nSo the church is\u00a0 New Testament doctrine only; it\u2019s barely spoken of in the Gospels.\u00a0 We don\u2019t even learn much about the church\u00a0 until Christ\u2019s statement here.\u00a0 But not so the nation of Israel; the nation of Israel is not a one testament people group as is the church.\u00a0 The nation of Israel goes not just in the Old Testament but also the New Testament.\u00a0 What is the church?\u00a0 The church, Ephesians 3:3-6 is a what?\u00a0 It starts with an \u201cM.\u201d\u00a0 Mystery.\u00a0 [Ephesians 3:3-6, \u201cthat by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. [4] By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, [5] which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; [6] to be specific,<\/em> that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.\u201d]\n\nWell, what is a mystery?\u00a0 A mystery is a new truth never before divulged.\u00a0 That\u2019s the New Testament concept of \u201cmystery.\u201d\u00a0 Paul defines a mystery as that which has been hidden from past ages and generations but now has been manifested to you.\u00a0 And this is part of the confusion, is people come at this word \u201cmystery\u201d with the English definition.\u00a0 The English definition is a mystery is something that has to be searched out with great diligence.\u00a0 \u00a0If you are reading a mystery novel you don\u2019t even know who the bad guy is until the last chapter.\u00a0 If you\u2019re watching a mystery movie you don\u2019t know who the bad guy is until the last five minutes.\n\nBut that\u2019s not how the Greeks used the word mystery.\u00a0 The New Testament was written in which language?\u00a0 Greek, and in Greek the word is musterion<\/em>, translated mystery in the English Bible and it refers to something hidden now revealed.\u00a0 That\u2019s why you can\u2019t find the church anywhere in the Old Testament and there\u2019s just a few veiled hints of it in the Gospels, because it\u2019s a mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s what the word \u201cmystery\u201d means.\u00a0 In the New Testament it, musterion<\/em>, denotes not the mysterious, as with the English word, but that which is being outside the range of unassisted natural apprehension and can be made only known by divine revelation, and is made known in a manner and a time appointed by God and those who are illumined by the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 Paul calls the church a mystery in Ephesians 3:9.\u00a0 [Ephesians 3:9, \u201cand to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;\u201d]\n\nWell what\u2019s the mystery exactly?\u00a0 Ephesians 3:6, \u201cto be specific\u201d now Paul is explaining the mystery, \u201cthat the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,\u201d what is the mystery?\u00a0 It\u2019s a new spiritual man consisting of believing Jews and believing Gentiles on equal footing\u201d that\u2019s the mystery, \u201cas joint heirs,\u201d that\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 It\u2019s a time period where the Jews or the Hebrew race is not elevated and preeminent over the Gentiles.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\n\nAnd this mystery is\u2026 keep in mind they had been functioning the old way for 1,500 years and when God changed the rules in Acts 2 it took them a while to catch up.\u00a0 Remember Peter saw the vision of the sheet in Acts 10 and what was in the sheet?\u00a0 A barbeque lunch and a bunch of animals that a Jew is not supposed to eat.\u00a0 Right!\u00a0 And so God says to Peter, \u201cArise and eat.\u201d\u00a0 And what does Peter say?\u00a0 It\u2019s one of the greatest contradictions in the whole Bible.\u00a0 \u201cNot so Lord.\u201d\u00a0 Think about that, \u201cNot so, Lord.\u201d\u00a0 [Acts 11:8, \u201cBut I said, Not so, Lord: for nothing common or unclean hath at any time entered into my mouth.\u201d]\u00a0 If He\u2019s your Lord why are you telling Him no?\u00a0 That\u2019s what you call an oxymoron, right? That\u2019s a self-contradicting idea.\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s like saying Microsoft works, postal service, government intelligence, jumbo shrimp, and reasonable attorney\u2019s fees.\u00a0 These are things that don\u2019t go together.\n\nNow why would Peter tell the Lord no?\u00a0 Because God changed the rules but he hadn\u2019t caught on yet because he had been functioning the old way for 1,500 years.\u00a0 So when Paul goes out on his first missionary journey and all these Gentiles start getting saved like crazy, what does the Jewish leadership of the church want to do?\u00a0 We\u2019ve got to make Jews out of these people; we\u2019ve got to make them submit to circumcision and the Law of Moses.\u00a0 And they have a great big pow-wow, it\u2019s all there in Acts 15, and they discern the will of the Lord that the rules have changed.\u00a0 When did the rules change?\u00a0 In Acts 2, it just hadn\u2019t caught on yet.\u00a0 So they discerned the will of the Lord that to be a member of the church you don\u2019t have to become a Jew.\u00a0 Of the decision had gone the other way the church would have kept functioning like Israel had been functioning for 1,500 years.\u00a0 To grow in a knowledge of Yahweh in Old Testament times\u00a0 you had to convert to what?\u00a0 Judaism.\u00a0 Such Gentiles were called proselytes.\u00a0 The most famous proselyte in the Old Testament is who?\u00a0 Anybody know?\u00a0 Ruth!\u00a0 Ruth, who was not a Hebrew but she was from the land of Moab, which is on the other side of the Jordan, an adjacent nation.\u00a0 And through the story of Ruth and her contact with Naomi she became a believer in the God of Israel.\u00a0 And so what did she have to do to grow in her knowledge of her newfound faith?\u00a0 She, Ruth said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, \u201cYour people shall be\u201d what? \u201cmy people, and\u00a0 your God shall be\u201d what? \u201cmy God.\u201d\u00a0 She became a proselyte.\n\nSo what they\u2019re trying to figure out in Acts 15 is do we make all these Gentiles that just got saved, proselytes?\u00a0 Do we continue to function as Israel functioned, going all the way back to the time of Moses?\u00a0 And the answer was no, because they discerned that the rules had changed there in Acts 2.\n\nSo what you have in the age of the church is a new spiritual man where the Jews are no longer in a place of preeminence over the Gentiles.\u00a0 The primary servants of God in the Old Testament was the Hebrew nation.\u00a0 All of the blessings to the rest of the world spilled over from the Hebrew nation.\u00a0 But that is NOT how it works in the church age.\u00a0 Today, as has been happening for the last 2,000 years, the primary servants of God is the church consisting of some Jews but mostly Gentiles in a new man, spiritual man, not a nation, called the body of Christ.\u00a0 That\u2019s the mystery.\u00a0 That\u2019s the new disclosure.\u00a0 It started in Acts 2 but they didn\u2019t figure out what was going on until later and consequently God raised up Paul, not to start the new man\u2026 do you follow me?\u00a0 There\u2019s a lot of confusion out there, a lot of people think the church started with Paul.\u00a0 Paul did not start the church.\u00a0 Man never starts a new work of God.\u00a0 God started it in Acts 2.\u00a0 Paul just explained what God started.\u00a0 Are you with me on that?\n\nSo what I\u2019m trying to get at is simply this: the nation of Israel is a two-testament Old Testament, New Testament, people group.\u00a0 The church is not; the church you\u2019re only going to find in the pages of the New Testament, not even in the Gospels very much, mostly in The Book of Acts and the Epistles.\n\nSo do you see all these differences between Israel and the church?\u00a0 We just went over four tonight, four in twenty-four.\u00a0 We have a totally different relationship with the Holy Spirit than Israel did.\u00a0 We have a totally different farewell address than Israel had.\u00a0 We have a totally different designation; Israel is called God\u2019s firstborn son; the church is never called that.\u00a0 And we are revealed in the New Testament only.\u00a0 The nation of Israel is disclosed in both testaments.\n\nNow what about evangelism?\u00a0 We don\u2019t have time to talk about that.\u00a0 But both Israel and the church had a missionary calling.\u00a0 God gave to Israel a different strategy for reaching the world than He had given to the church.\u00a0 The nation of Israel was given a come and see strategy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there\u2019s so much emphasis on the temple and its beauty, because the plan was the nation\u2026 and this is what the Queen of Sheba did, right?\u00a0 She traveled all the way from Arabia, she made a jaunt of 1200 miles to sit at Solomon\u2019s feet to learn of his wisdom. So the whole strategy for Israel in terms of evangelism is, if I can quote the movies here, \u201cif we build it they will come,\u201d which comes from the movie The Field of Dreams<\/em>.\u00a0 So let\u2019s build this beautiful edifice and look at all the riches, and the world is going to come and see it and they\u2019re going to learn about Yahweh by coming.\n\nAnd when you understand that you understand why Jesus was so ticked off when He went into His Father\u2019s house, the temple, and they had turned it into \u201cfirst colony mall.\u201d\u00a0 They had commercial\u00adized it because what are the nations supposed to think when they come to learn of Yahweh?\u00a0 God is a materialistic God and He\u2019s into money only.\n\nThe church, by contrast, does not have a \u201ccome and see\u201d strategy.\u00a0 We have a go and proclaim.\u00a0 In fact,\u00a0 you go through the Old Testament prophets, God never sent out an Old Testament prophet to any nation; the only one that He did is who?\u00a0 Jonah, and he didn\u2019t want to go, remember?\u00a0 There is no \u201clet\u2019s have missions Sunday\u201d in Israel.\u00a0 Let\u2019s reach the world for the nation, let\u2019s send people, because that was not Israel\u2019s strategy; it was a come and see strategy.\u00a0 When the church started it\u2019s a totally different strategy; it\u2019s a go and proclaim strategy.\u00a0 In other words, get built up and get out of the four walls and reach the world.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s a completely different concept.\n\nAnd to be honest with you, a lot of mega churches need to start understanding this because mega churches are still under the old strategy, they\u2019re into a come and see strategy, \u201cif we build this beautiful building, whether it\u2019s made out of pure glass or whatever, we\u2019re going to get the world in here.\u00a0 That is not a strategy that God gave to the church!\u00a0 That is a strategy that God gave to who?\u00a0 Israel!\u00a0 So I told you I\u2019d talk about that next week and I just ended up talking about it.\n\nSo I\u2019m going to stop talking while I have a change.\u00a0 That\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going 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