{"id":19225,"date":"2018-05-09T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-09T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-045\/"},"modified":"2018-05-09T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-09T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-045","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-045\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 045"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19225","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 045","sermon_date":"20180509","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5756,"sermon_slides":5755,"sermon_mp3":5757,"sermon_id":"59181932495","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"6:33","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n5-9-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 6:33\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 45\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles if we could and open them to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33. \u00a0We\u2019re continuing to move through our study on the Kingdom.\u00a0 And we\u2019re in chapter 16 of the Book I wrote and I was very happy, Ed just handed this to me, but my book has been featured in Friends of Israel, so praise the Lord, which is something I had prayed for to happen when I wrote it, that it would take root in the thinking of people.\u00a0 So if you guys can keep praying for that I\u2019d appreciate it.\u00a0 I was so happy with this advertisement I asked Ed if I could keep it and so he gave it to me.\u00a0 But the book that I wrote is really not the important book, the Book that God wrote is the important book.\u00a0 My book just sort of topically organizes the material on the Kingdom.\n\nWe have completed part number one, what does the Bible say about the Kingdom and we\u2019ve studied very carefully that the Kingdom was offered and rejected by first century Israel.\u00a0 And what happened to the Kingdom at that point, it was what?\u00a0 Postponed!\u00a0 So we studied that concept very carefully from Genesis to Revelation.\u00a0 And then we spent a little time talking about the two major problems with saying that we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 If you say we\u2019re in a spiritual form of the kingdom now (as many people are saying) that has two basic problems.\u00a0 The kingdom is always earthly over a repentant Israel so you change the definition of the kingdom.\u00a0 And then number two, the kingdom is only going to manifest after a time of tribulation.\u00a0 That\u2019s the great tribulation and that hasn\u2019t happened yet so how could the kingdom be here.\n\nAnd from there we started to go through, and this is what we\u2019ve done the last few weeks, New Testament passages that people use over and over again to argue that we are now in the kingdom.\u00a0 And that\u2019s sort of what the belief that I\u2019m promoting is up against; it\u2019s up against a doctrine called amillennialism which is the dominant view of the church, really going back to the fourth century A.D.\u00a0\u00a0 And amillennialists believe that Jesus Christ set up a spiritual form of the kingdom in His first coming.\u00a0 So there are obviously if that\u2019s true a lot of passages they use from the New Testament and what we\u2019ve been looking at are passages from Christ\u2019s ministry that amillennialists or kingdom now theologians routinely use.\n\nThe first three of these we\u2019ve already looked at.\u00a0 The first one is this belief that the kingdom is at hand, that\u2019s in Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 And we\u2019ve talked about how the expression doesn\u2019t mean that the kingdom is here in the ministry of Jesus or John the Baptist but the kingdom is what?\u00a0 Near, not here but near.\u00a0 And had Israel enthroned the King the kingdom conceivably could have come to the earth.\u00a0 But Israel didn\u2019t do that, she rejected the offer and so the kingdom has been postponed.\n\nAnd then from there we looked at Matthew 5:3 and verse 10 where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, says \u201ctheirs is the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 5:3, \u201cBlessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0the kingdom of heaven.\u201d\u00a0 [10]\u00a0 \u201cBlessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d]\u00a0 And when we were looking at those verses \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I tried to explain that \u201ctheirs\u201d is the use of the present tense, not to communicate a present manifestation of the kingdom but rather it\u2019s there to communicate the certainty of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 In other words it\u2019s so certain the Scripture talks about it in the present tense and I tried to show you that not every present verb in the New Testament means there\u2019s a present reality.\u00a0 One of the examples we used was 1 John 2:17 which says \u201cthe world is passing away,\u201d\u00a0 which is a present tense verb.\u00a0 [1 John 2:17, \u201cThe world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.\u201d]\n\nNow obviously the world hasn\u2019t passed away yet, because that was written two thousand years ago so why is the present tense very used?\u00a0 It\u2019s demonstrating that the passing away of this present world is so sure that God could speak of it as a present reality.\u00a0 It\u2019s not communicating that it\u2019s a\u00a0 present reality, it\u2019s communicating it\u2019s a certain reality.\u00a0 And that\u2019s how to understand those verses in Matthew 5:3 and 10 which says \u201ctheirs is the kingdom.\u201d\n\nAnd then from there we went to the statement that Jesus made, number 3 actually, \u201cThy kingdom come,\u201d which is part of the so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer, better categorized as the disciple\u2019s prayer.\u00a0 And when you understand that prayer Jesus is not at all saying that the kingdom is here.\u00a0 What He\u2019s saying is the first three petitions are requests for the kingdom to come, and then the last three petitions are petitions for certain needs to be me in the lives of His people that we have today that we won\u2019t have once the kingdom comes.\u00a0 So it\u2019s really three requests for the kingdom to come and three needs to be met in the interim. \u00a0So obviously if that\u2019s the prayer Jesus was not saying through the expression \u201cthy kingdom come\u201d that they were in the kingdom yet.\u00a0 That would violate the whole structure of the prayer.\u00a0\u00a0 So we move away from that, I think we spent the last couple of weeks on the so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer.\n\nAnd tonight, if time permits I\u2019d like to cover number four, five and six.\u00a0 But here is the fourth one that people use over and over again to say that we\u2019re in the kingdom and it\u2019s Matthew 6:33, that\u2019s why I had you open there and this is where Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, tells\u00a0 us to \u201cseek first\u201d the Kingdom. So notice what Matthew 6:33 says, Jesus says, \u201cBut seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 Now in context what are \u201call of these things?\u201d\u00a0 Well, He had been talking about the problem that we have called anxiety.\u00a0 Anybody ever suffer from that, worry, anxiety?\u00a0 And the things that we suffer from are basically the necessities of life, what we\u2019re worried about are the necessities of life going to be met.\u00a0 So we\u2019re worried about what are we going to drink, what are we going to eat, what are we going to wear, those sorts of things.\u00a0 And Jesus says why are you worried about that, doesn\u2019t God take care of the animals, doesn\u2019t He take care of the flowers of the field?\u00a0 If He takes care of them certainly He\u2019ll take care of you since you are His child.\u00a0 I mean, He already gave you the greater gift, His Son and His death and His resurrection on our behalf and if He dealt with the issue in your life, which is a greater thing, certainly He\u2019ll take care of the lesser things.\u00a0 Right.\n\nSo in that context He tells His people to not seek these material things but to \u201cseek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these\u201d other things will sort of take care of themselves. And just as a way of personal testimony I can completely testify in my life that\u2019s exactly how God has worked.\u00a0 I was worried many times about a career and where am I going to live and how much money am I going to make and am I going to have enough money to retire and I\u2019ve got to put my kids through college and all of these kinds of things\u2026 \u201cmy \u201ckids\u201d I only have one.\n\nAnd so these things sort of preoccupy us and what you discover is you just sort of put the Lord first, you don\u2019t really know how everything is going to work out materially but what you discover is when you put the Lord first and you try to live out His value system it is very interesting that all of these material things that we\u2019re so preoccupied with have a way of sort of taking care of themselves.\u00a0 Has anybody else experienced that in their life?\u00a0 That\u2019s sort of how the Lord works and the devil wants to get the cart before the horse, he wants us to get all worried about all these other things and suddenly we\u2019re not worrying about the kingdom any more.\n\nBut having said all the when He says \u201cseek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you\u201d what does He mean there when He says \u201cseek first His kingdom\u201d?\u00a0\u00a0 An awful lot of people will tell you that\u00a0 what He\u2019s saying there is we need to bring in the kingdom or live out the kingdom.\u00a0 And I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what He\u2019s saying at all.\u00a0 You\u2019ll notice here that the word \u201ckingdom\u201d is undefined, it\u2019s the Greek word basileia<\/em>, and since it is undefined where do you think we ought to go to get a definition of the kingdom? \u00a0The Old Testament, and we spent forty plus lessons filling that out, haven\u2019t we?\n\nSo the kingdom,\u00a0 you can\u2019t just come into this word and unload any meaning you want,\u00a0 your church or your Sunday School class, you have to load into it how the Old Testament has already developed the word.\u00a0 So as I\u2019ve tried to explain Matthew was the first gospel chronologically and therefore the only other books that had been written prior to Matthew\u2019s Gospel would be what we call Tanach, or Hebrew Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 You might be familiar with that term, Tanach, another word for it is Old Testament, TNK, that\u2019s what Tanach means, those are the three major divisions of Hebrew Bible; T stands for Torah, which means the Law, N stands for Nabim, the \u201cim\u201d ending means plurality in Hebrew; it\u2019s sort of like how we use the word \u201cs\u201d after a noun in English, we\u2019re talking about plurality.\u00a0 So Nabim means prophets.\u00a0 And K means Ketuvim or writings\u00a0 and those were the three major divisions of Hebrew Bible, Law, Prophets and Writings.\n\nAnd so the expectation of Jesus or Yeshua as He is speaking to Hebrews at this time in the Sermon on the Mount is when He throws out the word \u201ckingdom\u201d He is expecting them to fill into that word everything that Tanach or Hebrew Bible or what we call the Old Testament has revealed about the subject of the kingdom.\u00a0 And if that\u2019s what\u2019s happening here there\u2019s no way you could say that He\u2019s arguing for a spiritual form of the kingdom because the kingdom is never developed that way, it\u2019s always earthly.\u00a0 Certainly it has a moral quality but it\u2019s always earthly; it\u2019s a time period when they\u2019ll beat their swords into plowshares and the world will be governed from the city of Jerusalem.\n\nSo when Jesus says, \u201cBut seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you\u201d He\u2019s not saying bring in the kingdom or you\u2019re in a spiritual form of the kingdom today.\u00a0 In fact, if He had said that in front of this audience they would have thought you\u2019re crazy for even thinking that because that\u2019s not how Tanach or Hebrew Bible develops the doctrine of the kingdom, as we\u2019ve diligently studied.\n\nSo to explain the kingdom we\u2019ve got to go into the Old Testament and we\u2019ve already done that, we know what the kingdom is based on the Old Testament.\u00a0 And we also have to look at context, right?\u00a0 What are the three rules of real estate?\u00a0 Location, location, location!\u00a0 What are the three rules of Bible study?\u00a0 Context, context, context!\u00a0\u00a0 Now would you all agree with me on this that Mathew 6:33, \u201cSeek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you\u201d would you agree that that verse is preceded by Matthew 6:9-13?\u00a0 I mean, I think that\u2019s a fair statement, that Matthew 6:9-13 would come before Matthew 6:33.\u00a0 Right? Amen!\u00a0 Okay.\u00a0 And what did we just study in Matthew 6:9-13?\u00a0 The so-called Lord\u2019s Prayer.\u00a0 And as we have explained in the Lord\u2019s Prayer Jesus never said you\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 What He said is you\u2019re to request for the kingdom to come in three petitions, and until the kingdom comes you have three needs, one physical, two spiritual and you\u2019re to pray for those needs to be met and when the kingdom comes\u00a0 you won\u2019t have to pray any of that prayer anymore because the kingdom will be here and those needs will be satisfied.\n\nSo since that comes before Matthew 6:33 it\u2019s completely unlikely that Jesus would have jumped ship or switched horses in midstream and then all of a sudden started talking about a concept that the audience would have no familiarity with.\u00a0 Everything in Tanach and everything in the so called Lord\u2019s Prayer, and the future kingdom and so therefore we need to interpret verse 33 that way.\u00a0 He\u2019s not saying\u00a0 you\u2019re in the kingdom; what He\u2019s saying is prioritize your life according to the values of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s what He\u2019s saying.\n\nSo what is Jesus saying then in Matthew 6:33?\u00a0 \u201cSeek\u00a0 ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 What He\u2019s saying is God\u2019s people need to prioritize their lives, not according to the value system of the devil\u2019s world but according to the value system of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 So as you live your life as a believer you try to organize your life not according to the value system of\u00a0 this world but you try to organize it according to the value system of the future world, the kingdom that\u2019s coming to the earth.\u00a0 And so we are to prioritize our lives according to the values of the coming kingdom while living in Satan\u2019s domain, while the kingdom is in a state of abeyance or postponement.\n\nAnd if we, as the people of God do that then the material things, the promises, the material things, what you\u2019re going to eat, what you\u2019re going to drink, what you\u2019re going to wear, where you\u2019re going to work, where you\u2019re going to live, those other little details of life will sort of have a way of working themselves out naturally.\u00a0 So when Jesus says, \u201cSeek\u00a0 ye first the kingdom\u2026 and His righteousness,\u201d He\u2019s not saying bring in the kingdom.\u00a0 What He\u2019s saying is organize your life according to the value system of the future kingdom, and the things of this life will have a way of working themselves out.\n\nAnd this is the great benefit of studying the future.\u00a0 How would you ever know what God\u2019s priorities are unless you study what God\u2019s Word reveals about the future.\u00a0 When you study Bible prophecy, that section of the Bible that is yet to come, what you see very clearly are the things that God values.\u00a0 And when\u00a0 you see the things that God values you look at your own life and you say wow, I\u2019m kind of misprioritized, I\u2019ve got too much effort and energy over here when God says what I\u2019m pouring myself into is not an important issue, I ought to pour myself into something else. And you would never have that vantage point unless you study the future.\u00a0 Do you see that?\n\nYou can\u2019t learn this by studying the world; the world that we\u2019re living in, Satan\u2019s world, has its own value system.\u00a0 You can never learn the value system of God unless you study what His Word reveals about the future.\u00a0 For example, over in 2 Peter 3:10-11\u00a0 you have a tremendous statement about the future.\u00a0 Peter says, \u201cBut the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and all its works will be burned up.\u00a0 [11] Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way,\u201d look at the next line there, \u201cwhat sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.\u201d\u00a0 So if I understand that the future program of God is to take this world and take a blowtorch to it (in essence) and destroy it all, then why am I so wrapped up in worldly things?\u00a0 I mean, why am I so worried about how immaculate my lawn is, why do I get so upset when the guy next to me in the parking lot opens his door and puts a ding in my car door, brand new car, I\u2019ve got a ding in my car door and so I\u2019m all upset, I want to exchange numbers and all this stuff, I want to get all worked up about it, when in reality the car is going to burn, the lawn is going to burn.\n\nAnd what you discover in the prophetic Word of God is there\u2019s two things that are going to make it from this life into the next; only two things are going to survive the burning.\u00a0 The first thing we\u2019re looking at right here, the Word of God.\u00a0 This book is eternal.\u00a0 Jesus said, \u201cHeaven and earth will pass away but My Word will\u201d what? \u201cnever pass away. \u00a0\u00a0[Matthew 24:35]\u00a0\u00a0 The prophet Isiah said, \u201cThe grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God abides forever.\u201d\u00a0 [Isaiah 40:8]\n\nSo God is going to take a blowtorch to this world and one of the two things that\u2019s going to survive the blow torch is this Book.\u00a0 The only other thing that\u2019s going to make it through this burning process is the souls of people.\u00a0 The Book of Ecclesiastes, I think it\u2019s chapter 3, verse 11, says God has put eternity into the hearts of men.\u00a0 [Ecclesiastes 3:11, \u201cHe has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end.\u201d]\n\nSo when God burns everything and 2 Peter 3:10 tells us He is, there\u2019s two things that are going to survive: the Word of God and the souls of people.\u00a0 So since that is the case every opportunity you get to invest in this book, something you guys are doing tonight by taking a Wednesday night, in which you could be doing a million other things, and investing it into trying to understand His Word better.\u00a0 You have just made an investment that\u2019s eternal; you\u2019re investing into something that will survive the burning process.\u00a0 And the more you can pour yourself into the lives of people through discipleship, mentoring, teaching, one on one evangelism, anything like that, helping somebody, helping a fellow person, helping a brother or sister in the body of Christ, helping a fellow member of the human race, you\u2019ve just made an eternal investment there as well.\n\nSo you look at that and\u00a0 you say well, gosh, most of my life is not spent invested into the Word of God and invested into the people of God. \u00a0\u00a0I\u2019m invested in all these other things and I\u2019m leaning from prophecy that those priorities, although they seem very important to us they\u2019re really not going to stand the test of time.\u00a0 So I study the prophetic Word of God and I re-alter my life so that it\u2019s aligned with the priorities of God, which would be the Word of God and the people of God.\u00a0 And I am reorganizing my life based on what?\u00a0 Based on my knowledge of prophecy.\u00a0 So I\u2019m seeking first His kingdom, what will last, and His righteousness, even though the kingdom is not here yet.\u00a0 And what about all of these material things?\u00a0 Well, the promise of Matthew 6:33 is while you\u2019re living in the devil\u2019s world those things will just sort of take care of themselves.\n\nAnd how would I ever know what God\u2019s priorities are unless I understand prophecy and truths about the coming kingdom?\u00a0 So that\u2019s why Peter makes this tremendous statement about the future, 2 Peter 3:10, the heavens will disappear with a roar, and then verse 11 says, \u201cSince all these things are to be destroyed in this way \u2018\u201cwhat sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness.\u201d In other words, the knowledge of the future helps us reorganize our lives in the present.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all Jesus is saying in Matthew 6:33. Study the kingdom, understand what its values will be when it comes upon the earth and while you\u2019re living in Satan\u2019s domain realign your life consistent with the values of the coming kingdom and then let the Lord take care of the things that we have a tendency to become wrapped up in that really are not going to stand the test of time anyway.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what Christ is saying; a knowledge of the future changes our priorities in the present.\u00a0 And so what I\u2019ve done there is I\u2019ve kept the definition of the kingdom, basileia<\/em>, consistent with how it\u2019s used earlier in the chapter and consistent with how it\u2019s used in Hebrew Bible, or Tanach.\n
    \n \t
  1. R. Craven, a commentator from a prior era, in 1874, and I like to throw these quotes in just so you don\u2019t think I\u2019m making things up. He says, \u201cThe exhortations of our Lord to \u2018seek the Kingdom of God,\u2019 Matt. 6:33;\u201d and there\u2019s a parallel passage in \u201cLuke 12:31.\u201d Do you all know what I mean by a parallel passage?\u00a0 Same teaching, different book.\u00a0 So Jesus says, \u201cseek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.\u201d\u00a0 You\u2019ll find that in Matthew 6:31 and the parallel passage in Luke 12:31.\u00a0 Craven says, \u201cIt is manifest that both these exhortations are consistent with the hypothesis of a future Kingdom\u2014as though He had said, So act, that when the Basileia\u201d now basileia is the Greek word for kingdom, \u201cwhen the Basileia \u00a0is established you may enter it. Indeed the contexts of both exhortations require that we should put that interpretation upon them: the one in Matthew follows the direction to pray \u2018Thy Kingdom come\u2019(verse 10), and that in Luke is manifestly parallel with the exhortation to wait for an absent Lord (Luke 12, verses 35\u201340).\u201d\u00a0 [E. R. Craven, \u201cExcursus on the Basileia<\/em>,\u201d in Revelation of John, \u00a0J. P. Lange (New York: Scribner, 1874), 95.]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nAnd what he\u2019s saying in this quote is Jesus in Matthew 6:33 is not saying we\u2019re in the kingdom now at all, He\u2019s not saying establish the kingdom, He\u2019s not saying bring in the kingdom, He\u2019s not saying you\u2019re living in a spiritual form of the kingdom.\u00a0 All he\u2019s saying is align your life in the present with the values of the coming kingdom which you can only learn about by studying the future in God\u2019s Bible.\u00a0 And as the coming kingdom\u2019s priorities becomes\u00a0 your priorities then all of the things we\u2019re so worried about, what are we going to eat, what are going to drink, what are we going to wear, those things will sort of take care of themselves.\n\nI don\u2019t think God promises to make us rich, although some believers are rich, they have means beyond what the need which is the definition of rich, and if God has done that in your life then praise the Lord, but I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a promise. What God does promise is to meet our needs, the basic necessities of life, food, clothing, shelter, and that\u2019s a promise that the Lord gives us until our dying day as we live lives in accordance with His value system of the coming kingdom.\n\nSo in this world, 2 Corinthians 5:20, we ambassadors for Christ.\u00a0 Paul says, \u201cTherefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Now think about this for a minute; what is an ambassador?\u00a0 If I\u2019m, for example, America\u2019s ambassador to Iran I am representing American values on Iranian soil. See that?\u00a0 I\u2019m not going over there as an ambassador to overthrow Iran and to set up a miniature United States of America in Iran.\u00a0 If I was doing that then I really wouldn\u2019t be an ambassador, would I?\u00a0 I\u2019d be a conqueror.\u00a0 So our position in this world is that of ambassadors; we represent, through salt and light, the values of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s who we are. That\u2019s why we\u2019re estranged and peculiar people, you know, we don\u2019t really march to the drumbeat that the rest of the world is marching to because we are ambassadors, we are representing kingdom values in a time period before the kingdom is established.\n\nNow if we were in the kingdom right now then how could we be ambassadors of the kingdom?\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So that imagery would get lost.\u00a0 Not only are we ambassadors\u2026 by the way, do we understand that we\u2019re living in the devil\u2019s world?\u00a0 I\u2019ve\u00a0 used that expression a couple of times tonight.\u00a0 Do we understand that\u2019s a biblical truth?\u00a0 Satan is called \u201cthe prince of this world,\u201d \u201cthe god of this age,\u201d \u201cthe prince and power of the air.\u201d\u00a0 I mean,\u00a0 if we weren\u2019t living in the devil\u2019s world why would we be told to put on the what?\u00a0 The \u201cwhole armor of God.\u201d\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t make any sense, why would we need armor if we\u2019re at home.\u00a0 He is called a roaring lion seeking someone to devour and one of my favorite verses on this is 1 John 5:19 which says the whole world lies in the lap of the wicked one.\u00a0 [1 John 5:19, \u201cWe know that we are of God, and that the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.\u201d]\u00a0 I think it was Lewis Sperry Chafer that described that verse as kind of a mother rocking a baby to sleep.\u00a0 And that\u2019s basically what Satan has with this world, he\u2019s like rocking it to sleep, it\u2019s sound asleep, it\u2019s within his grasp.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why we\u2019re called ambassadors.\n\nSo how do we live for God in this territory? Well, rather than getting wrapped up with the value system of the world we need to align our lives with what the future reveals concerning what\u2019s important to God and as we live that way the divine promises, the basic necessities of life that we\u2019re very focused on will be supplied.\u00a0 We are also called \u201csons of the kingdom,\u201d Matthew 13:38.\u00a0 [Matthew 13:38, \u201cand the field is the world; and as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom; and the tares are the sons of the evil one;\u201d]\u00a0 What\u2019s a \u201cson\u201d?\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t Paul say in Galatians 4:7, \u201cif a Son\u201d then a what? \u201can heir.\u201d\u00a0 [Galatians 4:7, \u201cTherefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.\u201d]\u00a0 What\u2019s an heir?\u00a0 An heir is someone that legally is entitled to receive something; they\u2019re legally entitled to enjoy something but have they received it yet?\u00a0 No they haven\u2019t.\u00a0 Legally it\u2019s theirs but they\u2019re not yet enjoying it.\n\nSo because we are sons of the kingdom we are heirs of the kingdom, we are citizens, if you will, of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 We are ambassadors of the coming kingdom, but none of this imagery, heirship or ambassadorship makes any sense if we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\n\nToussaint and Quine, in an article on the kingdom, say this: \u2018When Jesus explained in Matthew 13:36\u201343 His parable of the tares among the wheat (vv. 24\u201330), He said \u2018the sons of the kingdom\u2019 and \u2018the sons of the evil one\u2019 are represented by the good seed and the tares, respectively (v. 38). The latter are obviously unbelievers, and the former are sons of the kingdom\u201d watch this very carefully, \u201cnot in the sense that the kingdom is present but in the sense that as believers they will inherit the millennial kingdom.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 [Stanley D. Toussaint and Jay A. Quine, \u201cNo, Not Yet: The Contingency of God\u2019s Promised Kingdom,\u201d Biblioteca Sacra<\/em> 164 (April\u2013June 2007): 140.]\n\nSo that\u2019s who we are in God, sons, heirs, ambassadors.\u00a0 And all this imagery that the New Testament use needs to be studied very carefully so we can understand our proper identity in the world.\u00a0 James 2:5 tells us that we\u2019re heirs of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 James, the Lord\u2019s half-brother says, \u201cListen,\u00a0my beloved brethren: did not\u00a0God choose the poor\u00a0of this world\u00a0to be<\/em>\u00a0rich in faith\u201d and to be what? \u201cand\u00a0heirs of the kingdom<\/u> which He\u00a0promised to those who love Him?\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s our legal title; legally we have citizenship in the kingdom but we\u2019re not enjoying it yet because the kingdom is not here.\n\nG.N.H. Peters, all the way back in the 1800\u2019s wrote a three volume set called The Theocratic Kingdom, <\/em>\u00a0and if you really want to understand and study this doctrine of the kingdom that would be the main source to go to, three volumes single spaced, and it\u2019s unbelievable what he created.\u00a0 He did it during a time period when there was no internet, there was no mass libraries, at least not one that he had access to.\u00a0 He was a very poor poverty stricken Lutheran itinerate preacher and he was so poor he couldn\u2019t even afford the paper to write on, he had to write on these sort of wrinkled tarnished pieces of paper and once his denomination discovered what he had written they kicked him out of his denomination because he was defending premillennialism and he was in a denomination that was amillennial and postmillennial and the man basically died in obscurity.\n\nAnd it really wasn\u2019t until subsequent generations came along and recognized what he had created and saw the amazing amount of scholarship that he had produced that they took his scribbled notes and put into this three volume set called The Theocratic Kingdom<\/em> by G.N.H. Peters.\u00a0 These are easily accessible on Amazon, we might even have some of these in our library.\u00a0 But you go and you read it, it\u2019s single spaced, it\u2019s proposition, observation, observation, observation, proposition, it\u2019s not exactly the kind of reading that you would do unless you\u2019re trying to fall asleep at night. But it probably is the greatest defense of premillennialism, which is the viewpoint that the kingdom is future, it\u2019s never been produced in church history.\n\nWilbur Smith, who writes the preface to it for the introduction says there that it\u2019s still a mystery how Peters, who quotes all of these church fathers and all of these sources could have gotten his hands on all that information as a poverty stricken itinerant Lutheran preacher.\u00a0 So somehow, by a miracle of God he did it, somehow, by a miracle of God it was preserved in a denomination that retaliated against him for his efforts.\u00a0 And praise the Lord we have his work today in this three volume set The Theocratic Kingdom<\/em>.\u00a0 And he makes tremendous statements in here about the kingdom.\n\nOne of the things he says, Volume 1, page 600, to show you how lengthy his work is, he makes a simple statement about James 2:5, he says, \u201c\u201cIf the church is the Kingdom, and believers are now in it, why designate them \u2018heirs of a Kingdom\u2019?\u201d \u00a0[G.N.H. Peters, Theocratic Kingdom<\/em>, 1:600] \u00a0It\u2019s sort of like you slap\u00a0 your head and say wow, why didn\u2019t I think of that?\u00a0 Why would James call us \u201cheirs of the kingdom\u201d if we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 You see, the name of the game today is to try to build this idea that we\u2019re in the kingdom and they to use the teachings of Jesus to communicate that point.\n\nSo you can see how Christ\u2019s statement, \u201cseek first the kingdom\u201d is not talking about a spiritual form of the kingdom that Christ established in His first advent.\n\nAnd we have time probably for one more.\u00a0 Let\u2019s go over to Matthew 11:12, here is yet another statement that people use in the teachings of Jesus to argue that we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Matthew 11:12.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cFrom the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0So apparently Jesus made the statement that the kingdom of heaven is suffering violence when Jesus was on the earth.\u00a0 Now kingdom now theologians will grab that statement and say aha, well then the kingdom must have been present.\u00a0 The kingdom must have been present in the ministry of Jesus Christ, Jesus must have set up some kind of invisible spiritual form of the kingdom or else it couldn\u2019t have been resisted violently.\u00a0 I mean, how do you resist something violently if it doesn\u2019t exist yet, because Israel never responded to the offer of the kingdom.\n\nSo at Dallas Seminary, unfortunately you have not people that aren\u2019t full-blown amillennial but they take a middle ground position between what I\u2019m trying to articulate here and amillennialism; they call themselves progressive dispensationalists and they try to argue for what\u2019s already\/not yet, that we\u2019re already in a spiritual form of the kingdom but the not yet portion is\u00a0 yet future, which is basically trying to find a middle ground between premillennialism and amillennialism, already not yet.\u00a0 And Craig Blaising<\/em>, one of the progenitors of that doctrine called progressive dispensational\u00adism uses this passage to argue that an already form of the kingdom must be present, because how in the world can people resist the kingdom if the kingdom wasn\u2019t in existence in spiritual form?\n\nNow how would I answer that?\u00a0 Well, one of the clues that\u2019s helpful is looking at the parallel passage.\u00a0 Remember what a parallel passage is?\u00a0 The same teaching found in another\u00a0 book.\u00a0 So if you hold your place here in Matthew 11:12 and go over to Luke 16:16 you find Jesus giving this a slightly different nuance.\u00a0 And as you\u2019re turning there this is a good teaching moment for us to communicate this point; whenever you build a doctrine from the Bible, I don\u2019t care what doctrine it is, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of the Trinity, the doctrine of Christ, you never build a doctrine from one verse.\u00a0 What you try to do is you try to look at everything the Bible has to say on a particular subject.\u00a0 If you want to understand the Holy Spirit you wouldn\u2019t just look at one verse, you would look at everything the Scripture says on that doctrine.\u00a0 See that?\n\nAnd that keeps you balanced and so many people, what you discover is they are kind of lopsided in their theology because they really don\u2019t take the time to investigate the whole Bible, all 66 books, on a certain subject.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got their pet verse or their favorite verse and many times the way they\u2019re relying on their favorite verse is out of balance with all the other verses on the topic.\u00a0 So try to examine the whole Bible when you study any doctrine, including this doctrine of the kingdom.\n\nYou can\u2019t built a present spiritual form of the kingdom just on Matthew 11:12; you\u2019ve got to look at the parallel passage in Luke 16:16 where it says this, and I\u2019ve got the relevant portions underlined there.\u00a0 \u201cThe Law and the Prophets\u00a0were<\/u><\/em>\u201d what? \u201cproclaimed<\/u><\/em>\u00a0until John; since that time\u00a0the gospel of the kingdom of God\u00a0has been\u201d what? \u201cpreached<\/u>, and everyone is forcing his way into it.\u201d\u00a0 See, if you were just to look at the Matthew passage it looks like the kingdom is here and suffering violence but when you look at the parallel passage what you discover is Jesus here is not high-lighting the spiritual present form of the kingdom.\u00a0 What He\u2019s highlighting is the proclamation of that kingdom.\u00a0 What He\u2019s highlighting here is the preaching of that kingdom.\n\nNow that would make sense, wouldn\u2019t it?\u00a0 Because as we have studied in the early gospels, particularly the first half of Matthew\u2019s Gospel, what was faithfully preached?\u00a0 The offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 That was preached by John the Baptist, and we\u2019ve gone over all these passages in this study that we\u2019ve been doing.\u00a0 It was preached by John the Baptist, Matthew 3:2.\u00a0 It was preached by Jesus Christ, \u201crepent for the kingdom of God is at hand,\u201d Matthew 4:17.\u00a0 It was preached by the twelve apostles, Matthew 10:5-7.\u00a0 And finally it was preached by the Seventy, Luke 10:1, 9.\n\nSo what were people rejecting?\u00a0 They weren\u2019t rejecting the kingdom, they\u2019re rejecting the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 They weren\u2019t rejecting the kingdom which had already been established; what they\u2019re rejecting is the proclamation of the kingdom, the preaching of the kingdom, or the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 Now how in the world would I arrive at that conclusion?\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t arrive at that conclusion just looking at Matthew 11:12.\u00a0 I\u2019ve also got to look at Luke 16:16 where the emphasis is not on the kingdom itself but its proclamation of the nearness in the person of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 And so when Matthew 11:12 talks about the kingdom suffering violence and rejection how could that be the kingdom?\u00a0 You can\u2019t reject God in the kingdom?\u00a0 What is being rejected and suffering violence is Israel\u2019s rejection of the offer of the kingdom. Do you see that?\n\nAnd when you slip down to, you leave Matthew 11:12 and you slip down to Matthew 11:16-19 suddenly the interpretation that I just gave starts to make sense.\u00a0 Would you all agree that Matthew 11:12 is followed by Matthew 11:16-19?\u00a0 Are we all in agreement on that, that verse 12 comes before verses 16-19.\u00a0 So I can\u2019t just look at verse 12, I\u2019ve got to look at the parallel passage, and then I\u2019ve got to look at the verses that follow, the subsequent verses.\u00a0 And I say that sort of tongue in cheek, my lame attempt at trying to be funny, but really I\u2019m not trying to be funny, what I\u2019m trying to teach you is basic Bible study methodology.\u00a0 This is how you flush out or study any doctrine in the Scripture.\n\nAnd when you leave Matthew 11:12 and you go down to verses 16-19 what you see is people are rejecting the message of the kingdom.\u00a0 \u00a0[Matthew 11:12, \u201cFrom the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force.\u201d ]\n\nNot the kingdom which had been established but its proclamation of its nearness.\u00a0 Notice, if you will, Matthew 11:16-19, it says, Jesus is speaking: \u201cBut to what shall I compare this generation?\u201d\u00a0 Which generation?\u00a0 First century Israel.\u00a0 \u201cBut to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market place, who call out to the other children,<\/em> [17] and say, \u2018We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge,\u201d which is a funeral type of song, \u201ca dirge and you did not mourn.\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So no matter what music was played the people weren\u2019t happy; if they played the flute people wouldn\u2019t dance or sing, if they played a funeral type of arrangement then people wouldn\u2019t mourn and so based on that Jesus makes the following analogy related to how the message of the kingdom was being rejected by first century Israel.\n\nVerse 18, \u201cFor John\u201d that\u2019s John the Baptist, \u201ccame neither eating nor drinking,\u201d remember he would eat the wild locusts and all that kind of stuff, or what is it, locust and honey wasn\u2019t that what John the Baptist ate.\u00a0 He was sort of an ascetic, he didn\u2019t come with a lot of pomp and circumstance, he came with the basic necessities of life.\u00a0 \u201cFor John came neither eating or drinking and they say, \u2018He has a demon!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 So when John came and offered the kingdom said well, we can\u2019t receive that, that\u2019s from a poor person.\n\nAnd then, [19] \u201cThe Son of Man came eating and drinking,\u201d the opposite of John, remember Jesus was hanging out with the tax gatherers and the prostitutes, and Jesus was teaching the exact same message, wasn\u2019t he?\u00a0 But were both John the Baptist and Jesus teaching, \u201crepent, for the\u201d what, \u201ckingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 The exact same words that came out of John the Baptist\u2019s mouth are the exact same words that came out of Christ\u2019s mouth.\u00a0 When John came they said well, he has a demon.\u00a0 When Jesus came and offering the same message and hanging around with the tax gatherers, prostitutes and so forth they say well, He\u2019s obviously a glutton.\u00a0 \u201cThe Son of man came eating and drinking and they say, \u2018Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!\u2019\u201d\u00a0 And then Jesus said, \u201cYet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.\u201d\n\nAnd what is Christ\u2019s point?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t matter how the offer is extended, you people will come up with some excuse to turn it down.\u00a0 John comes with the same message with one lifestyle, you didn\u2019t like him, I came with the same message in a different lifestyle and\u00a0 you don\u2019t like Me.\u00a0 And the point that Jesus is making here is you are rejecting the message of the kingdom or the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 What they were rejecting is its preaching; what they were rejecting is its proclamation.\u00a0 And that fits the context much better than Craig Blaising and all of these other progressive dispensationalists trying to argue from Matthew 11:12 that they were rejecting a spiritual form of the kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s not the context at all.\n\nI guess I could conclude that if all I had in my Bible was Matthew 11:12 but that\u2019s not all the Holy Spirit has given me; He\u2019s given me the parallel passage, Luke 16:16 and He\u2019s given me subsequent verses, verses 16-19 and you put all of this together and Jesus is never arguing here for a spiritual form of the kingdom that apparently got set up in his first coming. What he\u2019s arguing and demonstrating is these people have turned down the offer of the kingdom, the message of the kingdom, the proclamation of the kingdom.\n\nSo the following verses cannot be used to support kingdom now theology.\u00a0 \u201cBut seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you,\u201d [Matthew 6:33] that verse isn\u2019t talking about a present form of the kingdom; that\u2019s just saying align your lives according to the value system of the coming kingdom.\u00a0 The other verse that can\u2019t be used to support kingdom now theology is this verse that says the kingdom suffers violence until now.\u00a0 When you study everything the Bible has to present on it people were turning down the message of the kingdom, the preaching of the kingdom, the proclamation of the kingdom.\n\nAnd then one more, I\u2019ve got a couple of seconds left here, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to get through too much of this tonight, but people use this verse, \u201cI saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven,\u201d and they say there it is, Jesus came into the world, He bound Satan, and He started the kingdom.\u00a0 And they use these verses here, Luke 10:17-20, \u201cThe seventy\u201d now who are \u201cthe seventy\u201d?\u00a0 The seventy were the ones that Jesus sent out, Luke 10:1, Luke 10:9, to offer the kingdom to Israel.\u00a0 [Luke 10:1, \u201cThe seventy were the ones that Jesus sent out, Luke 10:1, Luke 10:9, to offer the kingdom to Israel.\u201d\u00a0 Luke 10:9, \u201cand heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, \u2018The kingdom of God has come near to you.\u2019\u201d]\n\n[Luke 10:17-20] \u201cThe seventy returned with joy, saying, \u201cLord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.\u201d [18] And He said to them,\u201d Jesus is speaking, \u201cI was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning. [19] Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. [20] Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are recorded in heaven.\u201d\u00a0 Now what do people do with this?\u00a0 They camp there on verse 18 where Jesus says \u201cI was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning\u201d and that they try to convince you of is Jesus evicted Satan from heaven right then and there.\u00a0 And some would even go so far as to say that Jesus bound Satan right then and there.\u00a0 And they use this sort of as proof that the kingdom has started.\n\nOne of the progenitors of progressive dispensationalism, Darrell Bock, who wrote a very scholarly two volume commentary on Luke goes out of his way over and over again, in the Gospel of Luke particularly, to argue that Jesus established the kingdom, at least an already form of it in the first century.\u00a0 So let me just read very fast what Darrell Bock says and then next week we\u2019ll see if we can poke some holes in it.\n\nDarrell Bock says, \u201cThough the Acts message has more detail and focuses more clearly on Jesus, the message is essentially the same: the reign of God is inaugurated. <\/em>In that inauguration\u201d see this is the direction everybody is moving in today, \u201cthe reign of God\u201d or \u201cthe kingdom of God\u201d has started.\u00a0 \u201cIn that inauguration the deliverance of God in the future God has been guaranteed.... Luke 10:18 confirms the arrival of authority with the announcement of the kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 See, he\u2019s not saying the kingdom is being offered, he\u2019s saying the kingdom is set up in an already spiritual form.\n\n\u201cLuke 10:18 confirms the arrival of authority with the announcement of the kingdom. Here the ministry of the messengers is also discussed. Jesus notes that he saw the fall of Satan from heaven, a clear message of defeat for the arch demon in the exorcism ministry of the Seventy-two. In Judaism, the coming of the Messiah and the demonstration of His authority were seen as marking the end for Satan.... \u00a0In Luke 10:18, however, the stress is on current events in Jesus\u2019 earthly ministry that spell the defeat for Satan. The image of Satan\u2019s defeat is important for it pictures his fall not just from heaven, but from rule as the next passage shows. The portrait of Luke 10 is of Jesus\u2019 authority as expressed in His followers<\/em>....\u201d\n\n\u201cAlthough this is not Satan\u2019s ultimate fall\u201d see, he believes in already-not yet, if he was a full blown amillennialist he would say this was the end of Satan right here.\u00a0 But he\u2019s not saying that, but I think he\u2019s still going in the wrong direction because he\u2019s arguing we\u2019re in an already form of the kingdom now.\u00a0 \u201cAlthough this is not Satan\u2019s ultimate fall his authority now stands challenged and defeated in a decisive way. The ministry of Jesus and the disciples is a turning point. The exorcisms by\u00a0Jesus and the disciples are tied to the kingdom\u2019s presence,\u201d see that, \u201cas the next key text, Luke 11:20, makes clear.\u201d [Luke 11:20, \"But if I cast out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.\u201d]\u00a0 \u00a0Now don\u2019t worry about Luke 11:20, we\u2019re going to be dealing with that one in depth as well.\u00a0 \u201cAny attempt to limit the meaning of this fall of Satan to just the activity of Jesus or to see it as merely proleptic\u201d in other words future \u201cfails. Any appeal to the presence of God\u2019s kingly power in the person and message of Jesus misses the significance of this transfer of power to others and ignores the kingdom association Jesus makes in explaining these activities in Luke 11:20.\u201d\u00a0 [Darrell Bock, \u201cThe Reign of the Lord Christ,\u201d in Dispensationalism, Israel and the Church, ed. Craig A. Blaising and Darrell L. Bock (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992), 40\u201341.]\n\nThere\u2019s a lot of\u00a0 scholarly gobbledy-gook in there.\u00a0 What he\u2019s basically saying is the kingdom was established in the first coming of Christ.\u00a0 And the fall of Satan, right then and there, in the ministry of Jesus Christ proves that.\n\nNow the next time we\u2019re together I\u2019m going to be showing you three reasons why that is not what that passage is saying.\u00a0 There was no fall of Satan right then and there in Christ\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 What Jesus is saying is I saw Satan fall from heaven.\u00a0 Wasn\u2019t Jesus around when Satan originally fell?\u00a0 Yeah, Jesus is eternally existent.\u00a0 In other words, Jesus is saying I saw Satan fall, I have authority over Satan.\u00a0 And it\u2019s on that basis that He tries to get the disciples to understand that their ability to cast out demons is only under His delegated authority.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll show you how that works out next time, but he\u2019s not at all arguing that Satan fell right then and there to bring an already form of the kingdom.\u00a0 So that\u2019s just a little bit of info to whet\u00a0 your appetite for next week.\u00a0 I think we\u2019ll stop talking at this point.\u00a0 I hope you found that interesting and does anybody have any comments?","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