{"id":19227,"date":"2018-05-23T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-05-23T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-047\/"},"modified":"2018-05-23T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-047","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-047\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 047"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[85],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19227","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 047","sermon_date":"20180523","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":5792,"sermon_slides":5791,"sermon_mp3":5793,"sermon_id":"523181949584","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":85,"chapter_and_verse":"12:28","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n5-23-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Matthew 12:28\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 47\n\nLet\u2019s take our Bibles and open them to Matthew 12 and verse 28 as we finish the last study, I mean we\u2019re not finished with studying the kingdom, we\u2019ll pick it up in the fall, but the last study before summer recess.\u00a0 Continuing on in chapter 16 of the book I wrote so believe it or not we\u2019re more than two-thirds through.\u00a0 This study is not going to go a thousand years like the millennial kingdom, at least I hope not.\n\nPart one was what does the Bible say about the kingdom.\u00a0 And we walked through that very carefully from the Garden of Eden all the way into the eternal state, including what God is doing today.\u00a0 And we saw that the kingdom today is not cancelled but postponed.\u00a0 And of course most people in church history and most people today, by way of denominational affiliation really won\u2019t teach it that way, they\u2019ll say that the kingdom is now and the kingdom started; they usually start it in spiritual form with the ministry of Christ. And so we talked about a couple of reasons why that doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0 Basically to argue for a spiritual form of the kingdom today in any shape or form you have to change what the Old Testament has revealed concerning the kingdom, which is always terrestrial and it always concerns the nation of Israel.\n\nSo if all of that is true that takes us into part three, why do some people believe that we are in the kingdom now?\u00a0 And we\u2019re kind of in a section of our study where we\u2019re going to go through various New Testament passages that people will use to argue for a present spiritual form of the kingdom.\u00a0 We have started by looking at passages from the ministry of Jesus.\n\nWe\u2019ve looked at how they use Matthew 3:2, \u201cthe kingdom is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d]\u00a0 And really we said that what that means is not that the kingdom is here but the kingdom is near.\u00a0 It was an opportunity for Israel to receive the kingdom had they enthroned the King.\n\nAnd then we looked at the passages in the Sermon on the Mount which says \u201ctheirs is the kingdom.\u201d \u00a0[Matthew 5:10, \u201cBlessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.\u201d]\u00a0 And basically there we indicated that \u201cis\u201d is in the present tense\u00a0 but that\u2019s not indicating the kingdom is here; it\u2019s indicating it\u2019s certainty. So that\u2019s an example of the futuristic present that we talked about.\n\nAnd then from there we looked at the so called Lord\u2019s Prayer, really the disciple\u2019s prayer and when you look at that it has about six clauses in it, three clauses where we\u2019re told to pray for the coming of the kingdom and then three more clauses or requests for our needs to be met while the kingdom is postponed.\u00a0 So we looked at that prayer very, very carefully and obviously if that\u2019s what Jesus is saying He couldn\u2019t have started the kingdom in His earthly ministry.\n\nAnd from there we took a look at the expression \u201cseek\u00a0 ye first the kingdom\u201d and people use that to say we\u2019re in the kingdom but we talked about how what that really means is we need to align our lives with kingdom realities or priorities because we are sons of the kingdom or ambassadors of the kingdom.\u00a0\u00a0 So the future, a knowledge of the future should dictate how we live in the present.\u00a0 Amen!\u00a0 That\u2019s all that\u2019s saying.\n\nAnd from there we looked at this little phrase \u201cthe kingdom suffers violence until now\u201d and people say well, if the kingdom was suffering violence in Matthew 11:12 that means the kingdom must have been present.\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]\u00a0 But we talked about how when you look at other biblical passages on it it\u2019s really not talking about the kingdom\u2019s arrival but its proclamation; it was being preached; it\u2019s nearness was being preached.\u00a0 And that\u2019s really what\u2019s being resisted.\u00a0 None of these passages, when you look at them specifically reveal that the kingdom is now here.\n\nFrom that we looked at the passage that Jesus says \u201cI saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.\u201d [Luke 10:18, \u201cAnd He said to them, \"I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And people think that means he fell right then and there in the earthly ministry of Christ.\u00a0 And last week we tried to make the case that that passage is not saying that, what it\u2019s saying is Jesus was contemplating the past fall of Satan, in eternity past and He was using that fall as a basis for teaching the disciples certain life lessons.\n\nTonight we come to this verse, Matthew 12:28 and then we\u2019ll be getting to our next lesson, which will be in the fall, Luke 17:20-21 and these two verses, this one that we\u2019re going to look at tonight and then Luke 17 are probably the two most quoted passages that people refer to when they\u2019re trying to argue that we are in the kingdom now.\u00a0 [Matthew 12:28, \u201cBut if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.\u201d\u00a0 Luke 17:20-21, \u201cNow having been questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, He answered them and said, \u201cThe kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed; [21] nor will they say, \u2018Look, here it is!<\/em>\u2019 or, \u2018There it is!<\/em>\u2019 For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d]\n\nSo take a look, if you could, at the first of those, it\u2019s Matthew 12:28.\u00a0 It\u2019s a very pivotal chapter\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 Jesus has performed an exorcism and the Pharisees have committed the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit meaning nationally the first century Israel rejected Christ.\u00a0 And\u00a0 there\u2019s a lot going on here in Matthew 12 so this is sort of the pivot; it\u2019s at this point the kingdom stops being offered to Israel because of the hardness of the hearts of their religious leaders.\u00a0 And they\u2019re trying to discredit Christ, they\u2019re trying to say He\u2019s casting out demons by Satan\u2019s power, He\u2019s refuting them and in the process of all this stuff going on (it\u2019s a heavy duty chapter) Jesus makes this statement?\u00a0 \u201cBut if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God,\u201d in other words, He\u2019s saying I\u2019m not casting out demons by Satan\u2019s power, I\u2019m doing it by the Spirit of God, \u201cBut if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom has come upon you.\u201d\n\nSo what people will do is they\u2019ll just grab that verse, \u201cthe kingdom has come upon\u00a0 you\u201d and they say well there it is, it\u2019s right there in the Bible, Jesus established a spiritual form of the kingdom in His earthly ministry in the first century.\u00a0 And what I would like to communicate, and by the way, when you cross reference Matthew 12:28 with Luke 11:20 it says the same thing; Luke is recording the same story.\u00a0 And Christ also, in Luke 11:20 says the kingdom has come upon you.\u00a0 So people love to quote these verses.\n\nWhat I would like to communicate is this statement that Jesus makes here, \u201cthe kingdom of God has come upon you\u201d can be understood in the offer of the kingdom framework that we\u2019ve already developed and explained earlier in this series.\u00a0 And what I mean by that is John the Baptist, Jesus Christ, the twelve apostles and the seventy all said \u201cRepen<\/em>t, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 These passages, just like Matthew 12:28, are not teaching the breaking in of the kingdom into our world, as many interpret them.\u00a0 A lot of people say the kingdom has broken in, the kingdom is here in miniscule form, these kinds of things, Jesus inaugurated the kingdom, the kingdom promises were realized. And I don\u2019t think any of that is what it\u2019s talking about.\n\nI believe that what is being revealed here is what I would call the tokens of the kingdom.\u00a0 In other words, what Jesus is doing with these various miracles is He\u2019s showing them what life will be like in the kingdom, what life could be like for the whole nation of Israel and therefore the whole world if Israel had simply responded to their king.\u00a0 In other words, the miracles that He\u2019s doing here He\u2019s not inaugurating the kingdom, He\u2019s basically saying here are the kinds of things that you can expect on a worldwide scale if Israel meets her conditions and enthrones Me as their King.\n\nSo for example, in Matthew 17:1-8, I\u2019m not sure we\u2019ll have time to read it all, but that\u2019s the famous transfiguration of Jesus Christ. [Matthew 17:1-8, \u201c\u00a0Six days later Jesus took with Him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up on a high mountain by themselves. [2] And He was transfigured before them; and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as light. [3] And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him. [4] Peter said to Jesus, \u201cLord, it is good for us to be here; if You wish, I will make three tabernacles here, one for You, and one for Moses, and one for Elijah.\u201d [5] While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, \u201cThis is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!\u201d [6] When the disciples heard this,<\/em> they fell face down to the ground and were terrified. [7] And Jesus came to them<\/em> and touched them and said, \u201cGet up, and do not be afraid.\u201d [8] \u00a0<\/strong>And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.\u201d]\n\nJesus transfigures Himself.\u00a0 He shows what He is like in His glorified state and He\u2019s there with two prophets. Anybody know who those two prophets were?\u00a0 Moses and Elijah.\u00a0 So what is that right there?\u00a0 Is that the kingdom?\u00a0 No, that\u2019s what you call a token of the kingdom.\u00a0 This kind of thing that you\u2019re seeing could be a reality for the whole nation and it could also be a reality for the whole world if the nation will simply enthrone Me as their King.\n\nSo the nation of Israel had a basic responsibility under the Mosaic Covenant; this is as old as Moses, the Law giver, who gave to Israel the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 He was God\u2019s instrument to give to Israel the Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 There\u2019s a provision in it that says this: \u201cYou shall surely set a king over you whom the Lord your God chooses.\u201d\u00a0 [Deuteronomy 17:15, \u201cyou shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman.\u201d]\u00a0 That\u2019s always been Israel\u2019s responsibility.\u00a0 And frankly, the nation of Israel has done a lousy job with that one.\u00a0 Don\u2019t you think?\u00a0 I love the Jewish people and respect the Jewish people but as of yet they\u2019ve never really gotten that one right.\u00a0 I mean, right out of the gate they didn\u2019t get it right, they wanted this guy, Saul, to reign over them.\u00a0\u00a0 And they should have known better because the kings are supposed to come from which tribe?\u00a0 Judah; Saul was from Benjamin, that should have ruled out his resume right out of the gate but they wanted him.\n\nAnd you have this pattern of Israel over and over again submitting to the wrong kings and that goes right into the life of Christ, the ministry of Christ where you have Jesus who is the heir to the Davidic throne as Matthew carefully documents in his genealogy in Matthew 1.\u00a0 I mean, it\u2019s right there in their midst, the miracles that He\u2019s doing could have been a reality for the whole nation and the world but they wouldn\u2019t submit to Him as their King.\u00a0 And so consequently the kingdom is postponed.\n\nSo because Israel never submitted to their King the kingdom never came.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 What did come is the tokens of the kingdom, through Christ\u2019s miracles.\u00a0 What the kingdom can and will be like on a national scale, on a global scale, if Israel fulfills their responsibility in Deuteronomy 17:15.\u00a0 So the whole arrival of the kingdom is totally contingent upon the elect nation\u2019s responsibility to fulfill their obligation, which thus far they have never done.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why today as we speak, in the year 2018, the kingdom is not present.\n\nAnd I sort of like to interpret Matthew 12:28 through the lens of Hebrews 6:5 where the author of the Book of Hebrews, now we don\u2019t know who the author was, some people think it was Paul but nobody knows, my wife likes to quote Hebrews when she wants me to make coffee in the morning, that\u2019s her biblical basis, she says it says he brews not she brews!\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 But the author of Hebrews writes to the audience, who are believers, and says \u201cyou have tasted of the Word of God,\u201d now watch this, \u201cof the powers of the age\u201d what? \u201cto come.\u201d\u00a0 So they and those that shared the gospel with them had received, some of them, from the ministry of Christ when He was there and they had seen these tokens of the kingdom.\u00a0 The miracles that He did was not the kingdom but it was a token or a taste of the age to come.\n\nArthur Pink, who I love, in Matthew 13, and I have to give a caveat here because Arthur Pink kind of went off the rails as he got older, which happens to people, he ended up moving into a really aggressive form of Calvinism and he ended up rejecting the dispensational view that he promoted early on.\u00a0 But early on Arthur Pink\u2019s stuff is really good and I haven\u2019t found anything better by anybody on the Matthew 13 parables than what Arthur Pink says.\u00a0 But when\u00a0 you use A. W. Pink\u2019s work you\u2019ve got to be careful concerning what time period you\u2019re quoting him from.\u00a0 There\u2019s a time period where he was really good, other time periods when he was off the wall.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like quoting Thomas Jefferson; there are times in Thomas Jefferson\u2019s life that he makes really biblical Bible based statements.\u00a0 I mean, you would think the guy is saved.\u00a0 But then there are other times in his life when he\u2019s saying things that are kind of off the wall and denying the fundamentals of Christianity and so when you use Thomas Jefferson as a source you\u2019ve got to reveal what time period of his life you\u2019re quoting him.\n\nI think I have a footnote in the book somewhere explaining Arthur Pink and why he should be used selectively.\u00a0 But Arthur Pink says something really good here.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBoth the signs\u201d that\u2019s the miracles of Christ, such as in Matthew 11, Matthew 16, \u201cand the powers of the kingdom, Hebrews 2, Hebrews 6,\u201d and then he says \u201cthe Messianic earthly one\u201d meaning the future kingdom, it\u2019s future because it was never received by the nation of Israel, \u201cwere displayed by Christ.\u201d\u00a0 So the powers of the age to come, what the kingdom could be like on a global, first a national then a global scale is what we mean by the tokens of the kingdom.\n\nSo Jesus, in Matthew 12:28, when He does these miracles and says the kingdom has come upon you is not talking about the inauguration of the kingdom; he\u2019s talking about what I would say are the tokens of the kingdom.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 And one of the gentleman that I quote in chapter 16 is Dr. Toussaint, who I think probably (he\u2019s with the Lord now) but he probably understood the doctrine of the kingdom better than any human being that\u2019s ever lived, in my estimation.\u00a0 And he reviews the offer of the kingdom framework that we\u2019ve been describing and he gives eight proofs for the offer of the kingdom, because what people are saying is well Jesus didn\u2019t offer a kingdom, all He did was come in, in the first century, and start the kingdom.\u00a0 And what we\u2019re saying is that\u2019s not what Jesus did at all; He offered it to Israel and Israel turned it down, leading to its current postponement.\n\nSo why would we think we\u2019re right with this offer of the kingdom viewpoint?\u00a0 And Toussaint gives eight reasons, and let me take you through those very quickly.\u00a0 The first reason is because contingency, where a benefit is conferred upon an offeree,( if the offeree receives the offer, that\u2019s what I mean by contingency), contingency is something that is very common in the Old Testament, very common!\u00a0 For example, you remember when it was, I think it was Jeroboam that bolted with the ten northern kings and you remember, this is right after the reign of Solomon, when the kingdom was no longer united but divided between north and south, and remember the prophet, I think it was Ahijah, if I remember right, showed up and spoke to Jeroboam.\n\nHave\u00a0 you read recently what Ahijah said to Jeroboam?\u00a0 He said, \u201cThen it will be that if\u201d see the contingency there, \u201cif you listen to all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my sight by observing my statutes and my commandments as my servant David did, then,\u201d see the \u2018if\u201d and \u201cthen\u201d?\u00a0 That\u2019s contingency, \u201c\u2026then I will be with you and build an enduring house as I built for David and I will give Israel to you.\u201d\u00a0 And this is God through Ahijah basically promising to bless the northern rebellious tribes that bolted; if<\/u> they walk as David walked then God promised to bless them.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the northern kingdom.\n\nSo you see if\/then language right then and there and that\u2019s contingency, isn\u2019t it?\u00a0 I mean, we understand contingency as New Testament Christians because the offer of salvation is given to us but whether we receive the benefits of that or not is dependent upon our response to the offer.\u00a0 So God is a God of contingency where benefits are contingent to the offeree if the offeree responds the right way.\u00a0 And what I\u2019m trying to say is that\u2019s all Jesus is doing in Matthew 12 is contingency.\n\nBut contingency is very well established in the Old Testament.\u00a0 Or you have contingency built into the messages of many of the Old Testament prophets.\u00a0 Jeremiah 18:7-10 says, \u201cAt one moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to uproot, to pull down, or to destroy it;<\/em>\u201d that\u2019s Jeremiah speaking.\u00a0 [8] \u201cBut if\u201d see the contingency there, \u201cif that nation against which I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent concerning the calamity I planned to bring on it. [9] Or at another moment I might speak concerning a nation or concerning a kingdom to build up or to plant it;<\/em> [10] if it does evil in My sight by not obeying My voice, then I will think better of the good with which I had promised to bless it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 So what you have in the message of many of the prophets is the idea of contingency.\n\nFor example,\u00a0 you have the prophet, Jonah, who went to Nineveh (reluctantly remember), and what did he say there?\u00a0 How many days was it?\u00a0 It was forty days wasn\u2019t it?\u00a0 \u201cforty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.\u201d\u00a0 [Jonah 3:4, \u201cThen Jonah began to go through the city one day's walk; and he cried out and said, \u201cYet forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown.\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 Well guess what?\u00a0 That prophecy was never fulfilled; Nineveh wasn\u2019t overthrown in forty days.\u00a0 Why not?\u00a0 Well, there was a built-in contingency into Jonah\u2019s offer.\u00a0 So you have to sort of interpret Jonah through what the contingency is as revealed in the prophet Jeremiah.\u00a0 Nineveh did fulfill its contingency and consequently God relented.\u00a0 But you see, this is the whole subject of contingency, if\/then, if\/then, if\/then, and this is very common in the\u00a0 Old Testament.\u00a0 And this is all Jesus is doing here in Matthew 12.\n\nThe second reason why the offer of the kingdom idea is valid is because of Israel\u2019s Mosaic Covenant.\u00a0 God gave to the nation of Israel, in the Mosaic Covenant and in the Mosaic Law according to Psalm 147:19-20, a legislative system only for Israel.\u00a0 [Psalm 147:19, \u201cHe declares His words to Jacob, His statutes and His ordinances to Israel. \u00a0[20] He has not dealt thus with any nation; And as for His ordinances, they have not known them. Praise the LORD!\u201d]\u00a0\u00a0 And it\u2019s what you call a Suzerain Vassal treaty.\u00a0 It\u2019s well known from the archeological discoveries we have received from that time period that God was using a well-known covenant structure called Suzerain Vassal. Suzerain, just remember S--superior, Vassal\u2014inferior.\u00a0 It\u2019s where a Suzerain or vassal comes to an inferior and says if you obey, if you enter into this covenant with me and obey the covenant text then I will bless you.\u00a0 If you disobey me we\u2019re still in a covenantal relationship with each other but I will bring forth curses on you.\u00a0 And this was very common in the Ancient Near East and that\u2019s basically what God gave to the nation of Israel.\n\nAnd in that Suzerain Vassal structure is if\/then language, isn\u2019t there?\u00a0 Contingency is there.\u00a0 Exodus 19:5-6, \u201c\u2018Now then, if<\/u> you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then<\/u>\u201d see that? \u201cyou shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; [6] and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.\u2019 These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel.\u201d]\u00a0 So when Jesus shows up to the nation of Israel in the first century and offers them Himself as King He is just the embodiment or fulfillment of the Mosaic Covenant, the Suzerain Vassal Treaty.\u00a0 The Mosaic Covenant points towards Christ ultimately.\u00a0 So we shouldn\u2019t be surprised to see contingency in Matthew 12, that\u2019s what Israel\u2019s whole covenantal structure is, going back to the time of Moses.\n\nThere\u2019s a third reason that Dr. Toussaint gives for the offer of the kingdom framework, and this is the idea that the offer, as you study it carefully, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d is confined to Israel.\u00a0 John the Baptist preaches it, \u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 3:2.\u00a0 [Matthew 3:1, \u201cNow in those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying, [2] \u2018Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d]\n\nJesus preaches it, \u201cRepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d Matthew 4:17.\u00a0 \u00a0Then He sends out the twelve to preach it and when He sends out the twelve did you notice what He says to the twelve?\u00a0 \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: \u2018Do not go in the way of the Gentiles,\u201d you see that, \u201cand do not enter any city of the Samaritans;\u2019 [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.\u00a0 [7] And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d[Matthew 10:5-7]\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Now are we going to quote this at a missions conference?\u00a0 Christ for the nations mission conference?\u00a0 I don\u2019t think we would quote this verse because Jesus specifically says you don\u2019t go to the nations with this one.\u00a0 Now the offer of the gospel, which is in Matthew 28, after Israel rejected it and after it\u2019s clear that the church is going to be formed, that\u2019s a global gospel.\u00a0 But not this offer of the kingdom.\n\nA lot of people are trying to argue that \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d is Jesus showing up and starting the kingdom.\u00a0 For who?\u00a0 for the whole world.\u00a0 Well if that\u2019s true then why was that offer only given to Israel?\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t make any sense.\u00a0 And Kingdom Now theologians will rarely draw your attention to Matthew 10:5-7 but when you look at it very carefully this is a specific offer for the nation only because whether the kingdom is going to come or not is totally dependent upon what tiny Israel is going to do with the offer.\u00a0 And once they reject it, as I\u2019ll mention in just a moment, this offer is taken off the table.\n\nThere is a fourth reason why the offer of the kingdom framework is valid and you find contingency in Christ\u2019s own teachings.\u00a0 If you look at Matthew 11:14 He makes this very interesting statement concerning the prophet Elijah.\u00a0 In fact at the end of the Old Testament, in the Book of Malachi, chapter 4 around verses 5-6 there\u2019s a prophecy that Elijah is going to come in the last days.\u00a0 In fact, devout Jewish homes set out what they call Elijah\u2019s chair today because they believe Malachi 4:5-6 is literal and Elijah is going to show up.\u00a0 [Malachi 4:5, \u201cBehold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the LORD. [6] He will restore the hearts of the fathers to their<\/em> children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, so that I will not come and smite the land with a curse.\u201d]\n\nAnd then Jesus, concerning John the Baptist, says something very interesting in Matthew 11:14, He says, \u201cAnd if you\u201d now who\u2019s the \u201cyou\u201d?\u00a0 It\u2019s Israel.\u00a0 \u201cIf you are willing to accept it, John\u201d that\u2019s John the Baptist, \u201chimself is Elijah who was to come.\u201d\u00a0 See the contingency there?\u00a0 He says \u201cif you, \u201cIsrael, respond to this contingency and the offer of the kingdom, John the Baptist could very well be, and he will be, the fulfillment of Malachi 4.\u00a0 But we know that the nation of Israel rejected the offer so John the Baptist was not the fulfillment of Malachi 4.\u00a0 So how in the world is Malachi 4 going to be fulfilled?\u00a0 Ah, the Book of Revelation, chapter 11, where you have two witnesses, one of whom shuts up the heavens for three and a half years so that it can\u2019t rain, in the Book of Revelation.\u00a0 Does that sound like anybody that you know of in the Old Testament?\u00a0 That sounds a lot like Elijah to me.\u00a0 1 Kings 17 and other passages.\n\nSo we know that the Malachi 4, 5 and 6 is going to be fulfilled with a future generation that will respond to the offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 And John the Baptist could have very well been the fulfillment of Malachi 4 had the nation of Israel responded.\u00a0 And the if\/then language is very clear that you\u2019re dealing with a contingency here that\u2019s on the table.\u00a0 In fact, Dr. Toussaint, my mentor on this subject, of Matthew 11:14 says concerning Matthew 11:14, \u201cThere is scarcely a passage in Scripture which shows more clearly that the kingdom was being offered to Israel at this time. Its coming was contingent upon one thing: Israel receiving it by genuine repentance.\u201d\u00a0 [Stanley D. Toussaint, Behold the King: A Study of Matthew (Grand Rapids, Kregel, 2005), 153.]\n\nThat\u2019s what holds it up today, that\u2019s what will bring it to the earth in the future, that\u2019s why it wasn\u2019t set up in the first century.\u00a0 And you see, when people quote to you Matthew 12:28 \u201cthe kingdom of God has come upon you\u201d and say the kingdom started in the first century of Christ, they don\u2019t give you any of this background that I\u2019m giving you.\u00a0 They don\u2019t explain the offer of the kingdom, they don\u2019t explain what that means, they don\u2019t explain why it\u2019s a valid concept, they just want you to read Matthew 12:28, ignore all this other stuff\u2026 or it\u2019s not even brought to your attention and wallah, we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 But I\u2019m saying the issue if far more complicated than that; there\u2019s an obvious contingency going on in Matthew\u2019s Gospel which was rejected by the nation of Israel leading to the kingdom\u2019s postponement.\n\nThe fifth reason why the offer of the kingdom framework is valid is because there is a cessation or ceasing of the announcement, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d there\u2019s a cessation of it after Matthew 12.\u00a0 Once you get into Matthew 12:24 and it\u2019s very clear that the leaders\u2026 you see, God deals with the nation based on its leaders, it\u2019s the leaders that are going to make the decision for the direction the nation is going to go.\u00a0 That\u2019s why the Bible says when the righteous rule the people rejoice; when the wicked rule the people what?\u00a0 look and groan.\u00a0 [Proverbs 29:2, \u201cWhen the righteous increase, the people rejoice, But when a wicked man rules, people groan.\u201d]\n\nAre you doing more groaning or rejoicing in our country?\u00a0 Well, there\u2019s a biblical reason for that, \u201cWhen the righteous\u201d are in authority \u201cthe people rejoice.\u201d\u00a0 When the wicked rule the \u201cpeople groan.\u201d\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same within the nation of Israel.\u00a0 What happens to the kingdom is contingent upon the response of the leaders.\u00a0 God deals with leaders.\u00a0 Adam sinned, we all fell, right?\u00a0 Because he\u2019s our federal head.\u00a0 So God is very into leaders and what they do.\u00a0 And the leaders are going to have to make a decision what to do with the king here in the first century.\u00a0 And they had a golden opportunity to enthrone the king and they turned the offer down and once they turned the offer down Matthew 12:24, where they attribute His miracles to Beelzebub, I mean, once they do that it\u2019s pretty obvious which direction the leaders are going to go.\u00a0 What you\u2019ll discover is the offer disappears from Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 \u00a0[Matthew 12:24, \u201cBut when the Pharisees heard this, they said, \u2018This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.\u2019]\n\nI mean, it\u2019s there in early Matthew, Matthew 3:2, you\u2019ll see it; Matthew 4:17 you\u2019ll see it; Matthew 4:23, it\u2019s called the gospel of the kingdom, it\u2019s there.\u00a0 It\u2019s there as Jesus is sending out the twelve, Matthew 10:5-7, and you get to Matthew 12\u00a0 you see this rejection, something that\u2019s called the \u201cblasphemy of the Holy Spirit\u201d where it\u2019s now irreversible for first century Israel, the offer is withdrawn.\u00a0 [Matthew 3:2, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 4:17, \u201cFrom that time Jesus began to preach and say, \"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 Matthew 4:23, \u201cJesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Matthew 10:5-7, \u201cThese twelve Jesus sent out after instructing them: \u201cDo not go in the<\/em> way of the<\/em> Gentiles, and do not enter any<\/em> city of the Samaritans; [6] but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. [7] And as you go, preach, saying, \u2018The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u2019\u201d]\n\nThe offer is not there anymore.\u00a0 You\u2019re not going to find it in chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22. What\u2019s Jesus doing in that section?\u00a0 He\u2019s revealing a new man called the church, \u201cI will build My\u201d what?\u00a0 \u201cchurch, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 16:18]\u00a0 He\u2019s training the twelve, who are going to be the foundation stones of that church.\u00a0 Well what happened to the offer of the kingdom?\u00a0 It got turned down and the reason we know it got turned down is because the offer disappears in latter Matthew.\u00a0 Why does it disappear?\u00a0 Because it got taken off the table at that point.\u00a0 And I know that to be true because you have the cessation of the announcement of the kingdom and the nearness of the kingdom after the leaders of the nation in Matthew12 reject the offer.\n\nSo you can take Matthew\u2019s Gospel and structure it chiastically; now you, if you were with us in the Daniel study you know what chiasms are, right?\u00a0 It\u2019s called a chiasm because it sort of looks like a part of an X which is Chi in Greek, so we get this literary pattern, chiasm, where chapters 1 and 2 parallel the theme in chapter 28.\u00a0 Then you move inward in the chiasm, chapters 3 and 4 parallel a theme in chapters 26 and 27.\u00a0 Chapters 5-7 parallel a theme in Matthew 24 and 25.\u00a0 You keep working your way inward, inward, inward, and the middle of it is the turning point and you can take the whole Gospel of Mark and you can structure it like this as well.\u00a0 In fact, I would argue the whole Book of Esther is structured like this.\u00a0 And of course, Daniel 2-7 is structured like this.\n\nSo the most inner part of the chiasm is the turning point, so when you look at Matthew\u2019s Gospel chiastically what\u2019s the inner point of the chiasm?\u00a0 It\u2019s chapters 11 and 12 where the nation is going to reject the King.\u00a0 Once that happens the die is cast, we\u2019re now at a turning point and from that point on the offer is withdrawn.\u00a0 And if you know your Old Testament pretty well then you\u2019ll know that this happens a lot for the nation.\u00a0 For example, do you recall the folks that came out of Egypt and saw all the signs and wonders in Exodus and got to the northern border there, of the nation of Israel, to a place called Kadesh-barnea, Numbers 13 and 14, and they looked into the land and what did they see in the land? Giants!\u00a0 And instead of saying well, if God did all this other stuff for us He\u2019s going to help us with these giants.\u00a0 But they didn\u2019t walk by faith, they went into fear and once that happened God shut the door on that whole generation.\u00a0 He says none of you will enter except for Joshua and Caleb and you\u2019re going to enter forty years later as senior citizens with the kids.\n\nSo this idea where a nation rejects what God is doing and an offer is withdrawn, this is not some new teaching here, Matthew is writing to a Hebrew Christian audience, they would know all this, going back to Kadesh-barnea and Numbers 13 and 14.\u00a0 So the offer of the kingdom is withdrawn, just like the opportunity to enter the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey, was withdrawn for that generation.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s happening here in Matthew 12.\n\nAnd then, a sixth reason why this offer of the kingdom framework is legitimate, as a legitimate way of interpreting the Bible, is because the moment the offer is rejected and withdrawn what does Jesus start talking about?\u00a0 He starts announcing the judgment on that generation that rejected the offer.\u00a0 You say well, what is He doing?\u00a0 He\u2019s going back to Deuteronomy 28, blessings for obedience, Deuteronomy 28:1-14 and then what\u2019s Deuteronomy 28:15-68 about? Curses for disobedience.\u00a0 You can\u2019t have the blessings without the curses Israel because this is part of your covenant that God gave to you all the way back in Mount Sinai, which is still in effect when Jesus was walking the earth.\u00a0 And so once the offer is withdrawn the kingdom is no longer at hand but now the discipline of the Mosaic Covenant, which is very severe, starts to get highlighted in the ministry of Christ.\n\nThis was predicted by the prophet Daniel, and you guys know these verses, right, the seventy weeks?\u00a0 We spent seventy weeks teaching the seventy weeks prophecy, so we won\u2019t re-teach it but you might recall verse 26, \u201cThen after sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.\u00a0 And its end will come like a flood\u2026.\u201d\u00a0 What is he alluding to?\u00a0 The cycles of discipline announced in the Mosaic Covenant, going back to Mount Sinai and Moses.\u00a0 And so Jesus starts saying things like this: [Matthew 23:35] \u00a0\u201cso that upon you may fall the guilt of all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. [36] Truly I tell you, all these things will come upon\u201d who? \u201cthis generation.\u201d\u00a0 Which generation?\u00a0 The Matthew 12 generation, first century Israel that turned down the offer.\n\nAnd then\u00a0 you have Luke 19:42 where Jesus says, and this is His triumphal entry, \u201cIf you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. [43] For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, [44] and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s talking about what the Romans would do to the Jews in A.D. 70, about four decades after Jesus made this statement.\u00a0 Why is Jesus talking like this?\u00a0 All Jesus is doing is reemphasizing what Moses said would happen in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.\u00a0 So what you see in the ministry of Christ is the offer of the kingdom stops, number five, and then number six He starts immediately announcing judgment.\n\nAnd then the seventh of eight reasons why this offer of the kingdom framework is legitimate is because now what you start seeing is a postponement of the kingdom announced in Christ\u2019s parables.\u00a0 It\u2019s now we start learning that the kingdom is not cancelled but it\u2019s postponed.\u00a0 So remember what all of these guys announced in early Matthew?\u00a0 The kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u00a0 Then the offer is turned down, Matthew 12.\u00a0 Jesus early on was saying the kingdom has come near, Luke 10 and other passages.\u00a0 But then the offer is turned down and what does He start talking about?\u00a0 He starts talking about a delay in the kingdom and He starts revealing parables which speak of this delay.\n\nOne of those parables is the parable of the minas<\/em>, and this is what Luke 19:11 says: \u201cWhile they were listening to these things, Jesus went on to tell a parable, because He was near Jerusalem, and they supposed that the kingdom of God was going to appear immediately.\u201d\u00a0 So He told them the kingdom was going to appear immediately early on but the nation\u2019s leaders rejected the offer.\u00a0 And now you see a switch in the ministry of Christ where He starts to reveal parables to educate them\u2026 guess what folks, the kingdom is not going to appear immediately.\u00a0 In fact, there\u2019s going to be a long age of time where you\u2019re going to be entrusted with various minas<\/em> which is possessions, things God gives us to invest for Him while the kingdom is not here.\u00a0 But one of these days He\u2019s going to come back and hold us accountable for how we invested what He gave us during His absence.\n\nSo you see the total shift that\u2019s going on here in Christ\u2019s ministry?\u00a0 It\u2019s no longer \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,\u201d it\u2019s now here\u2019s a bunch of parables, including the parable of the minas<\/em> showing you that the kingdom is not going to come for a very long time, during an inter-advent age.\u00a0 And why did Jesus start talking this way?\u00a0 Because they all thought the kingdom was going to appear immediately.\n\nAnd then finally number eight, when does the offer of the kingdom reappear?\u00a0 It\u2019s very strategic in Matthew\u2019s Gospel.\u00a0 The expression, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d or what\u2019s called the gospel of the kingdom, or the offer of the kingdom, is never spoken again by Christ while He was on the earth.\u00a0 It was never spoken again by the apostles as the Lord\u00a0 used them to build the church.\u00a0 All these people today that are trying to say that the kingdom was reoffered in the Book of Acts, it is NOT reoffered in the Book of Acts because to reoffer it in the Book of Acts would be to reverse what Jesus is saying here, that it\u2019s going to be delayed for a long period of time.\n\nSo when does this offer reappear?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t reappear until when?\u00a0 The tribulation period.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t reappear until when?\u00a0 The 70th<\/sup> Week of Daniel.\u00a0 And then you start reading words like this, describing the 70th<\/sup> week of Daniel, how do I know Matthew 24 is talking about the 70th<\/sup> Week of Daniel?\u00a0 How do I know verse 14, which is called the what discourse, does anybody know?\u00a0 Olivet discourse He gave it on the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 I asked my students once why do we call it the Olivet discourse and one guy said because we get all of it, and that\u2019s not the right answer.\u00a0 He gave the discourse on the Mount of Olives.\u00a0 It really wasn\u2019t even a discourse, they just came to Him with private questions about the temple\u2019s destruction and He gave them a heck of an answer that goes on two chapters.\n\nBut in the Olivet Discourse He starts to outline the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 How do I know He\u2019s talking about the seven year tribulation period in the Olivet Discourse?\u00a0 Because if you look at verse 15 He\u2019s quoting Daniel 9:27, which is the seven year tribulation period.\u00a0 [Daniel 9:27, \u201cAnd he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come<\/em> one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.\u201d]\n\nAnd right before verse 15 He says, \u201cThis gospel of the kingdom\u201d which one would that be? The same one that was offered to Israel in the first century, \u201cwill be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.\u201d\u00a0 [Matthew 24:14]\u00a0 So some way, somehow that offer gets reinserted in the end times.\u00a0 Until the seven year tribulation period the offer is not reasserted.\u00a0 So today our message to the world is not \u201crepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 When Paul preached the gospel he never said \u201crepent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 When the Philippian jailor said \u201cWhat must I do to be saved?\u201d\u00a0 Acts 16:30-31 he didn\u2019t say \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.\u201d\u00a0 What did He say?\u00a0 \u201cBelieve on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, you and your household.\u201d\n\nWe have a lot of people that are trying to develop their gospel presentations from the wrong passages of the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 You don\u2019t go to\u00a0 passage of the Bible where Jesus is offering something to first century Israel as a nation and hold that out to the lost as some kind of cure for them to be saved.\u00a0 You preach the gospel of grace the way it\u2019s modeled for us in the church age.\u00a0 See, what I\u2019m giving you is what are called dispensational distinctives; that\u2019s what I\u2019m giving you.\u00a0 Dispensation basically means house rules; the word translated \u201cdispensation\u201d in Ephesians 1:10 and Ephesians 3:2 is oikonomia, oikos<\/em> means house, nomos<\/em> means law or rules, house rules. \u00a0You have to figure out what rules apply when to understand the Bible correctly.\n\nSo \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand\u201d is taken off the table after Matthew 12 and is never even reinserted until the tribulation period yet future.\u00a0 So Jesus, at one time said, early in His ministry, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God has come near to you\u201d as it was offered to Israel.\u00a0 \u00a0Then towards the end of His ministry, in the Olivet Discourse, Luke 21:25-26 where He talks about, \u201cThere will be signs in the sun and the moon and the stars, the earth in dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves,\u00a0 [26]\u00a0 men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.\u201d\u00a0 Sounds like the tribulation period, doesn\u2019t it.\u00a0 [27] \u2018then will they see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, with power and great glory.\u00a0 [28] But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.\u2019\u00a0 [29] Then He told them a parable: \u2018Behold the fig tree and all the trees;\u2019\u00a0 [30] as soon as they put forth leaves, you see it and know for yourselves that summer is now near.\u00a0 [31] So you also, when you see these things happening,\u201d watch this, \u201crecognize that the kingdom of God is near.\u201d\n\nYou see what\u2019s happening here?\u00a0 Luke 10, when the kingdom is offered to first century Israel He says the kingdom is near.\u00a0 When they turn down the offer, the leaders do anyway, the offer disappears.\u00a0 And you don\u2019t find the expression \u201cthe kingdom of heaven\u201d or \u201cthe kingdom of God is near\u201d until the tribulation period, Luke 25:31, then all of a sudden Jesus again says, \u201cthe kingdom of God is near.\u201d\u00a0 So why does the statement appear early on in Christ\u2019s ministry disappear, disappear from the age of the church and then reappear in the tribulation period.\u00a0 You can\u2019t make any sense of this unless you understand what I\u2019m trying to explain to you, that there was an offer of the kingdom on the table for the first century.\u00a0 And this is the way to understand the ministry of Jesus Christ.\n\nRevelation 11:15 explains how that offer is going to be accepted one day by a future generation.\u00a0 Just like Kadesh-Barnea was rejected by generation one coming out of Egypt, so God says okay, that doesn\u2019t bother Me, you turned down My offer, I\u2019ll reoffer it to the next generation.\u00a0 The next generation comes along and they decide to walk by faith and they enter Canaan under Joshua, who is now a seasoned citizen at the ripe old age of eighty roughly, along with Caleb, and they take the giants.\u00a0 So one generation turns down the offer, God says okay, I\u2019ll offer it to the next generation, that generation receives it and gets victory.\n\nThat\u2019s what\u2019s happening with this offer of the kingdom.\u00a0 First century Israel turns it down; the kingdom offer is off the table, the kingdom is postponed.\u00a0 Does that throw God off?\u00a0 No, He says I\u2019ll just offer it to the next generation, a distant generation, a Joshua generation, a second generation down the road.\u00a0 Now what generation of Israel is that?\u00a0 That\u2019s the tribulation Jews, they\u2019re the ones that are going to receive it, THEN the kingdom of this world at that point will become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.\n\nSo why is the offer of the kingdom framework legitimate?\u00a0 Because there\u2019s a contingency in the Old Testament, because the Mosaic Covenant reveals contingency, because the message of the offer is confined to Israel only, there\u2019s contingency in Christ\u2019s teaching, there\u2019s a cessation of the announcement of the offer of the kingdom after Matthew 12.\u00a0 Then Jesus starts to talk about judgment on first century Israel and Christ begins to reveal postponement in His parables, like the parable of the minas<\/em>, and then the offer doesn\u2019t reappear anywhere\u00a0 until texts and prophecies dealing with the distant generation of Israel in the future.\n\nSo when Jesus shows up and says, \u201cRepent, for the kingdom of God is at hand\u201d and He says, \u201cthe kingdom of God has come upon you\u201d you can\u2019t interpret the passage like that without this framework.\u00a0 If you just come in and say well, He just started the kingdom you totally ignore all this background that I\u2019ve just gone over.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t inaugurate the kingdom there in Matthew 12:28, He revealed tokens of the kingdom to the generation making the choice.\u00a0 His miracles were tokens of the kingdom.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what it\u2019s going to be like if you receive it.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what it\u2019s going to be like for the world.\u00a0 Here\u2019s what it\u2019s going to be like for the nation.\u00a0 He didn\u2019t inaugurate the kingdom, He didn\u2019t start the kingdom.\u00a0 He offered it and gave to them visible manifestations of what it could be like. But tragically we know they turned it down.\n\nOne other fast thing, I\u2019ve got three minutes left here and I can do this very quickly, believe it or not, Jesus says, [Matthew 12:;28] \u201cBut if I cast\u00a0 out demons by the Spirit of God then the kingdom of God has come upon you,\u201d the word there it phthan\u014d<\/em> in Greek, and when you study this word out in Greek, phthan\u014d<\/em> is very different than erchomai<\/em>, which is used in Luke 17:20, it\u2019s a different word than anathan\u014d <\/em>which is the word for appear, they thought the kingdom of God was going to appear.\u00a0 Phthan\u014d<\/em> is a word in Greek that communicates contingency much different than those other words.\n
    \n \t
  1. R. Craven, in his Excurses<\/em> on the basileia<\/em> kingdom say this: \u201cIn the New Testament . . . phthan\u014d<\/em> occurs only in the later, weakened sense of reaching to<\/em>. . . . The phrase is similar to the one in 1 Thessalonians 2:16, where, manifestly, it was not designed to represent the wrath spoken of as already poured forth<\/em> upon its objects\u2014they were living men, but as having reached unto, overhanging<\/em> them, compare also Rom. 9:31; 2 Cor. 10:14; Phil. 3:16; 1 Thess. 4:15. . . . The passages under consideration\u201d Matthew 12:28, \u201captly accord with the idea of a near approach of the Basileia<\/em>\u201d which is the Greek word for kingdom, \u201cto the Jews in the person of Christ, \u2018implying an offer of establishment which might be withdrawn; they are equivalent to the declaration of Luke 10:9, 11.\u201d\u00a0 [E. R. Craven, \u201cExcursus on the Basileia<\/em>,\u201d in Revelation of John, J. P. Lange (New York: Scribner, 1874), 96.]<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nSo translation, the word phthan\u014d<\/em> better fits a contingency as something overhanging, something that could be a reality if the nation responds.\u00a0 If Matthew 12:28 was saying Jesus showed up and started the kingdom E. R. Craven\u2019s point is it\u2019s unlikely that phthan\u014d<\/em> would have been used; erchomai <\/em>would have been used, or anathan\u014d <\/em>would have been used but not phthan\u014d<\/em>.\u00a0 So this is where the knowledge of Greek helps a little bit because it brings out some of these nuances.\n\nSo what am I trying to say?\u00a0 I\u2019m trying to say that in Matthew 12:28 \u201cthe kingdom of God has come upon you\u201d is not the establishment of the kingdom or its inauguration but it\u2019s offer. And when we reconvene, after our hiatus we\u2019re going to look at the most cited passage that Kingdom Now theologians use.\u00a0 It may take us a few weeks to look at that one; that\u2019s in Luke 17:21 where Jesus says the kingdom of God is in you.\u00a0 [Luke 17:21, \u201cnor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.\u201d]\u00a0 Now ask yourself this: when He said that who was he talking to?\u00a0 He\u2019s talking to the Pharisees.\u00a0 Would Jesus be saying the kingdom is in the Pharisees?\u00a0 That wouldn\u2019t make a lot of sense, would it.\u00a0 So He must be saying something different than the kingdom has started.\n\nSo anyway, I\u2019m done.","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