{"id":19231,"date":"2018-09-26T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-26T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-051\/"},"modified":"2018-09-26T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2018-09-26T05:00:00","slug":"the-coming-kingdom-051","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/the-coming-kingdom-051\/","title":{"rendered":"The Coming Kingdom 051"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[470],"sermon_service_type":[474],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-19231","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-the-coming-kingdom","sermon_service_type-wednesday-evenings","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"The Coming Kingdom 051","sermon_date":"20180926","sermon_month":"9","sermon_year":"2018","sermon_notes":6092,"sermon_slides":6093,"sermon_mp3":6094,"sermon_id":"926181815341","series_or_event":470,"service_type":[474],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"3:3-5","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\n\nThe Coming Kingdom\n\n9-26-18\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 John 3:3-5\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Lesson 51\n\nLet\u2019s open your Bibles to John 3.\u00a0 I appreciate your prayers while I was in Canada, everything went well.\u00a0 I did not get arrested, I\u2019m happy about that.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re interested in prophecy teaching I\u2019m doing a two part series, just for this week only, at the College of Biblical Studies in Houston and part 2 is tomorrow night at 4:45.\u00a0 I think you can catch it on their live stream; just go to the College of Biblical Studies student page I think is what it is.\u00a0 You should be able to find it.\n\nLet\u2019s take a look at John 3:3-5 and as you know we\u2019ve been continuing our series on the whole subject of the kingdom, laid out what the Bible teaches on the kingdom, how the kingdom literally interpreted it\u2019s currently in a state of postponement as God is at work through the church.\u00a0 A lot of people today are challenging that and they\u2019re trying to make it look like we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\u00a0 And of course to do that you have to change the definition of the kingdom.\n\nSo what are the verses that people use to argue that we\u2019re in the kingdom.\u00a0 We\u2019re looking at a collection of verses from Christ\u2019s ministry.\u00a0 And the last time I was with you, I think we spent three weeks on this, Luke 17:20-21 which we\u2019re leaving that subject tonight which says, \u201cthe kingdom of God is in your midst.\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\nIn the last three lessons I tried to explain this verse does not say the kingdom is within you; what it\u2019s actually saying is the kingdom is being offered to Israel.\u00a0 And some would say the kingdom is in your midst, basically what that means is the kingdom is certain, it\u2019s certainly coming one day, it\u2019s not arguing that it\u2019s present.\u00a0 We spent about three weeks on that because that\u2019s probably the main passage that people use to argue that we are currently in the kingdom.\n\nAnd what I\u2019d like to do tonight is move on into another passage that people typically use and that\u2019s, I call it the \u201cNic at night discourse,\u201d where Jesus has a conversation with Nicodemus at night and He tells him he must be born again to see and enter the kingdom.\u00a0 So let\u2019s take a look at those verses, John 3:3-5. [3] \u201cJesus answered and said to him, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 [4] Nicodemus said to Him, \u201cHow can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother\u2019s womb and be born, can he?\u201d [5] Jesus answered, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.\u201d\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice the twofold repetition of \u201ckingdom of God\u201d there, \u201che cannot see the kingdom of God\u201d unless he is born again, and then in verse 5 he says he can\u2019t even \u201center into the kingdom of God\u201d unless he is born again.\u00a0 And of course this is a big deal because unless a person is regenerated at the point of faith alone in Christ alone, meaning that the Holy Spirit enters them, then they\u2019ve never been born a second time.\u00a0 If they\u2019ve never been born a second time then they can\u2019t enter the kingdom of God.\n\nNow \u201ckingdom now\u201d theologians use this to say once you\u2019re born again\u00a0 you enter the kingdom of God spiritually speaking.\u00a0 I would say most people understand the verse that way. So people use this to argue that we are currently in the kingdom because people are born again and they see the kingdom and they enter the kingdom, therefore Jesus set up a spiritual form of the kingdom when He was here the first time.\u00a0 That\u2019s basically what people do with this verse.\n\nAnd what I\u2019d like to communicate to you is this:\u00a0 Jesus, in this discourse, was not dealing with the subject of when is the kingdom coming; He\u2019s leaving that whole discussion untouched and He\u2019s leaving what the Old Testament has already said about that intact.\u00a0 He\u2019s not talking about when, He\u2019s talking about how; He\u2019s re-emphasizing a point of how someone enters the kingdom once it comes.\u00a0 He\u2019s not saying we\u2019re in the kingdom now.\n\nSo you\u2019ll notice, was the word kingdom here, basileia<\/em>, defined at all?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s not defined so what meaning should we pour into that word?\u00a0 What the Old Testament says!\u00a0 And this is what people aren\u2019t doing in their Bible interpretation, they\u2019re just coming to the word \u201ckingdom\u201d and filling it with whatever definition they think is appropriate but that\u2019s not how the Bible is to be interpreted.\u00a0 When you see something undefined in the New Testament you have to pour into it the meaning that was already developed in the Old Testament.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 It\u2019s like the word redemption, when I see the word redemption in the New Testament I can\u2019t just make it mean what I want it to mean, I have to go back into the Old Testament and figure out what redemption meant in the Old Testament.\u00a0 And in the Old Testament you have the story of the Exodus where God liberated His people from 400 years of Egyptian bondage through the Passover Lamb, the blood of the Passover Lamb. That\u2019s what redemption means.\n\nSo when the word redemption shows up in the New Testament it\u2019s expecting us to carry with it that whole meaning that\u2019s developed in the Old Testament.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So it\u2019s the same thing here with this expression \u201cthe kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Clayton Sullivan, in his Book, Rethinking Realized Eschatology<\/em> says\u2026 and Realized Eschatology<\/em>, does anybody remember what that is?\u00a0 That\u2019s what kind of eschatology or theology?\u00a0 Kingdom now theology, it\u2019s just a fancy name for saying kingdom now theology.\u00a0 Clayton Sullivan is a very interesting guy, he is as liberal as they come theologically.\u00a0 But he wrote a book which is very helpful, saying we\u2019re not in the kingdom right now; we can\u2019t manipulate the Bible to teach that.\u00a0 So you can\u2019t really accuse the guy of bias because he\u2019s very liberal, he\u2019s just a good scholar.\n\nSo Clayton Sullivan says this concerning John 3.\u00a0 He says, \u201cBecause in these verses the Kingdom is not dealt with extensively, it is impossible to use such references to reach a meaningful understand\u00ading of the basileia<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 So a few just casual references made by Christ is not enough to build a whole doctrine on that we are in the kingdom now and prophecy has been realized. See that? \u00a0\u00a0So what Jesus is doing in this conversation is He\u2019s not changing the definition of the kingdom one iota; He\u2019s simply reiterating a point that the Old Testament makes concerning not when the kingdom comes but how one enters once it comes.\u00a0 The spiritual birth is absolutely necessary to enter the kingdom once it takes place on planet earth.\n\nAnd that is how the gospel of John, that\u2019s how the New Testament is set up. When you get to the New Testament it\u2019s sort of expecting that you\u2019ve already read the Old Testament and so it\u2019s sort of expecting that when it throws words and phrases at you you\u2019re not just reading whatever you want into those words and phrases, you\u2019re developing them from meaning that\u2019s already been explained in the Old Testament.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo Jesus in this same discourse says this, John 3:14-15, He says, \u201cAs Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; [15] so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.\u201d\u00a0 Now if you don\u2019t know anything about the Old Testament this seems like a very strange statement here.\u00a0 But if you do know the Old Testament suddenly the whole statement that Jesus makes in these verses makes a lot of sense.\n\nWhy is that? Because in Numbers 21, remember the story?\u00a0 The children of Israel had come out of Egypt, they had made their way, after 400 years of bondage in Egypt they had made their way to Mt. Sinai to receive the Law, and then they just had an eleven day journey into Canaan.\u00a0 And sort of along the way they started to pass through the east of Israel, an area called the Transjordan, and you remember what began to happen\u00a0 was the people started to complain.\u00a0 And if I remember the story right snake bites out of judgment started to kill all the people.\u00a0 And so Moses cries out to God for mercy and He basically says, God says to Moses okay, put a serpent on a pole and all the people have to do to be preserved from the judgment of God and the snake bite is to look at the serpent on the pole and they would receive immediate healing.\n\nSo Jesus, in His conversation with Nicodemus uses that same story which you would think Nicodemus would know a lot about since he was a scholar of Hebrew Bible, and the point of it is in the same way there\u2019s a snake bite that\u2019s killing all of the human race, which is the snake bite of the serpent because of original sin in the Garden of Eden.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 So we\u2019re all dying, aren\u2019t we?\u00a0 So how do we get spared from that curse?\u00a0 We, just as the Old Testament characters looked at the serpent on the pole what are we supposed to do? We\u2019re supposed to look at the Savior on the tree who died in our place; after this story happened Jesus would die in our place and we, 2,000 years later are looking backward to what Jesus did.\u00a0 And how are we saved from the ultimate snake bite that\u2019s killing all of us?\u00a0 We believe in Christ; we look at Him and what He\u2019s done and we trust in Him and just as the Old Testament characters were saved from poisonous venom we\u2019re saved from the poisonous reality of sin.\n\nSo He\u2019s basically using that story to preach the gospel and\u00a0 you\u2019ll notice that He is making use of the Old Testament which He is assuming that Nicodemus already understands.\u00a0 When you understand that you understand why He says just a few verses earlier, \u201cTruly, truly, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.\u201d\u00a0 Just as Nicodemus would fill the story that Jesus told with the Numbers 21 history Jesus is expecting in the same way Nicodemus to fill the expression \u201cthe kingdom of God\u201d with the meaning that\u2019s already developed in the Old Testament, that we\u2019ve spent many, many lesson developing.\n\nBut Nicodemus, for whatever reason, doesn\u2019t seem to get it, does he?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t even get the analogy, \u201cHow can a man be born when he is old,\u201d [John 3:4, \u201cNicodemus said to Him, \u2018How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?\u2019\u201d] \u00a0How can he enter his mother\u2019s womb a second time?\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t even understand the essentials of the new birth.\u00a0 So look at how Jesus sort of rebukes him in John 3:9-10, \u201cNicodemus said to Him, \u2018How can these things be?\u2019\u00a0 [10] Jesus answered and said to him, \u2018Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?\u2019\u201d\u00a0 See the definite article in front of \u201cteacher\u201d?\u00a0 Nicodemus was not just a teacher within the nation of Israel; he was THE teacher, he was in a place of authority \u00a0over all the other teachers and Jesus rebukes him and says you\u2019re in this position and you don\u2019t understand this rudimentary truth that you have to be born spiritually to enter the kingdom of God?\n\nSo why didn\u2019t Nicodemus get it?\u00a0 Why didn\u2019t he just go back into the Old Testament and under\u00adstand what Jesus was talking about.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll take you in just a moment to the exact passage that Jesus had in mind from the Old Testament when He talked about the new birth.\u00a0 It\u2019s Ezekiel 36.\u00a0 So why didn\u2019t Nicodemus understand Ezekiel 36?\u00a0 Well, it has to do with where first century Judaism was.\u00a0 First century Judaism was wrapped up, not with the Word of God but with a bunch of man-made traditions.\u00a0 \u00a0In Mark 7:13, and He says, \u201cthus invalidating the word of God by your tradition which you have handed down; and you do many things such as that.\u2019\u201d\n\nSo first century Israel was not reading the pages of God\u2019s Word, the leadership wasn\u2019t, they were all worried about their extra-biblical traditions that had really come into existence in the inter\u00adtest\u00adamental time period, because what sent the nation into captivity in the Old Testament?\u00a0 What sin?\u00a0 It was sabbath violations.\u00a0 In fact, the captivity was \u2026 the number 70 is not just a random number, it was ascertained based on how many sabbaths the nation of Israel rejected. They were to work the land for six years and to let the land have a rest on the seventh year.\u00a0 I think that\u2019s all in Leviticus 25.\u00a0 So they ran right over God\u2019s sabbath for seventy sabbaths and so God says okay, every year that you rejected My sabbath principle is a\u00a0 year I\u2019ll send you into captivity.\n\nAnd you can see where I\u2019m getting that from, you might just want to jot down 2 Chronicles 36:20-21.\u00a0 [2 Chronicles 36:20-21, \u201cThose who had escaped from the sword he carried away to Babylon; and they were servants to him and to his sons until the rule of the kingdom of Persia, [21] to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete.\u201d]\n\nSo what happened is Pharisaism developed and they said to themselves we\u2019re never going to let that happen again, we\u2019re never going to go into captivity based on rejecting the Sabbath so what we\u2019re going to do is we\u2019re going to pass so many laws, man-made laws that no one will ever break the sabbath again.\u00a0 So Pharisaism started off very well-intentioned but eventually what happens is the tail starts to wag the dog and manmade traditions become more important than actually what God has said.\u00a0 So that\u2019s why Jesus is always running into conflict with the religious crowd.\u00a0 He\u2019ll heal someone on the sabbath, for example, and everybody will get all bent out of shape at Him for doing that because He\u2019s not supposed to work on the sabbath.\u00a0 So who passed a law that says you can\u2019t heal someone on the sabbath?\u00a0 Man passed that law, but Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath was not following their traditions, He was following God\u2019s Word and the sabbath was designed to be a blessing for man. Right?\n\nSo there\u2019s always this conflict between Jesus and the Pharisee related to this issue of manmade traditions.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s why Nicodemus is the teacher of Israel and yet he doesn\u2019t understand the new birth to enter the kingdom.\u00a0 So what passage should Nicodemus, in this conversation what passage should have immediately come to his mind, that he wasn\u2019t thinking about because he was all focused on man-made regulations.\u00a0 What should have immediately come to His mind was Ezekiel 36, remember that famous passage?\u00a0 Notice Ezekiel 36:24-28, the spiritual birth to enter the kingdom all the way back in the 6th<\/sup> century B.C. is very clearly spelled out by the prophet, Ezekiel, right.\n\nWhat does Ezekiel 36:24-28 say?\u00a0 It says, \u00a0\u201cFor I will take you from the nations,\u201d God speaking to Israel, \u201cand gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.\u201d\u00a0 So that\u2019s their political restoration.\u00a0 And then what does verse 25 say, \u201cThen I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.\u201d\u00a0 Look at this, \u201cI will give you a new heart,\u201d verse 26 and \u201cput a new spirit within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.\u201d\u00a0 And look at verse 27, \u201cI will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. [28, \u201cYou will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers; so you will be My people, and I will be your God.\u201d]\n\nSo Ezekiel 36 is very, very clear that before the kingdom of God comes to the earth the nation of Israel must be born spiritually.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 And it\u2019s the same for us, if we\u2019re going to have any hope of entering the kingdom one day, we can\u2019t get in unless we\u2019re what?\u00a0 Born again, born spiritually.\u00a0 So before I was a Christian, before I got saved, let me put it that way, I used to not understand born again Christianity, I used to think it was a sect within Christendom. \u00a0\u00a0So you have the Presbyterian Christians, the Baptist Christians, the Methodist Christianity, and oh\u00a0 yeah, the born again Christians.\u00a0 But if what Jesus is saying here is accurate (and it is) there\u2019s only one kind of Christian, the born again Christian, because if a person has never been born by the Spirit of God then they\u2019re not saved, it doesn\u2019t matter what church they go to.\u00a0 But if you are born again then you are saved, regardless of what church you go to.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 You could be a Metho-Catho-Bapterian, or a Bapticostal Fundamatic, or whatever, the issue is have you been born spiritually?\n\nAnd this is the kind of conversation Jesus was having with Nicodemus; Nicodemus should have immediately said oh yeah, it teaches all that back in Ezekiel 36, but he was so wrapped up in all of these sabbath laws and manmade things that they were invalidating the Word of God and that wasn\u2019t where his focus is.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why he was the teacher in Israel and yet did not understand such a basic thing. See that?\n\nSo what Jesus is affirming here is not when the kingdom comes; that\u2019s already been established in the Old Testament.\u00a0 What He\u2019s reaffirming is the necessity of the new birth to enter the kingdom once it comes.\u00a0 That\u2019s what he\u2019s dealing with.\u00a0 He\u2019s not at all preaching here a present spiritual form of the kingdom.\u00a0 How do I know that?\u00a0 Because I can keep reading the Book of Ezekiel and see Ezekiel trace this.\n\nThe Book of Ezekiel, you might be interested to know, is symmetrically structured, and these are sort of some of the clues that you look for when you study a book of the Bible, especially a big book like Ezekiel that\u2019s got 48 chapters in it.\u00a0 The things that happen, and you look for these big structural clues, you try to get the big picture, the things happening at the beginning of the book, chapters 1-24 are repeated at the end of the book.\u00a0 So in Ezekiel 1-3 he is commissioned, his mouth is closed, in other words, he can\u2019t talk unless God allows him, and in Ezekiel 33 he\u2019s recom\u00admissioned and his mouth is opened.\u00a0 In the early part of the book he preaches judgment coming on Judah; he\u2019s making predictions about the Babylonian captivity which in his day was imminent.\u00a0 But in chapter 33-48 he\u2019s recommissioned to preach restoration.\u00a0 And that\u2019s where he starts to describe the kingdom coming to the earth yet future.\n\nIn the early part of the book the Shekinah glory of God leaves the temple, remember that,\u00a0 just before Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the temple in Ezekiel 8-11?\u00a0 In the last part of the book, chapters 40-48 the Shekinah glory of God doesn\u2019t leave the temple but it enters the millennial temple.\u00a0 And that\u2019s why, when people say well the millennial temple is not literal, well how could that be, that would destroy the symmetry of the book.\u00a0 I mean, is the temple that the Shekinah glory of God left, was that a literal temple?\u00a0 Well of course it was.\u00a0 So the Shekinah glory of God going into the millennial temple is a literal temple as well.\u00a0 And the fulcrum there in the middle that counter-balances the two sides is chapters 25-32 which is predictions of imminent judgment on the surrounding nations.\u00a0 And so that\u2019s the big picture of the Book of Ezekiel.\u00a0 I\u2019m indebted to my former professor Dr. Charles Dyer for helping me with that because once I saw the big picture of sorting through the Book of Ezekiel it\u2019s sort of easy, now that you have a few structural clues.\n\nBut what I\u2019m trying to get at is the kingdom restoration stuff is in that final third, that final part of the book.\u00a0 So when Jesus says, \u201cYou must be born again\u201d to enter the kingdom of God He\u2019s not tampering with that structure at all.\u00a0 He\u2019s leaving it intact.\u00a0 The only thing He\u2019s doing is re-emphasizing the point\u00a0 that Ezekiel makes in Ezekiel 36 that you have to be born spiritually to enter the kingdom.\u00a0 So Ezekiel 33-48 is a unit and what you have in chapter 33 is the recommissioning of Ezekiel.\u00a0 Chapter 34 you have the prophecies of the millennial David, David is actually going to be resurrected and function under Christ in the millennial reign.\u00a0 Chapter 35 is Edom\u2019s destruction.\u00a0 Chapter 36 , which we just read, is the political and spiritual restoration of the nation of Israel.\n\nChapter 37 is an illustration of that restoration.\u00a0 Chapter 37:1-11 is illustration one; chapter 37:12 through the end of the chapter is illustration number two.\u00a0 What is illustration number one? Ezekiel sees the valley of the dry bones and God says to Ezekiel, can these bones live?\u00a0 And I love Ezekiel\u2019s answer, the best answer you could give, Well, Lord, You know\u2026\u00a0 You know, I don\u2019t know!\u00a0 So he was told to prophecy to the bones and the bones assembled themselves so that they formed a human skeleton and then he saw skin and muscles and sinews and things like that forming on this skeleton, so it formed a living human being.\n\nBut then what does it say there in chapter 37:8, \u201cBut there was no\u201d what? \u201cbreath in them\u201d in the skeleton in the human being.\u00a0 The word \u201cbreath\u201d there is ruach<\/em> in Hebrew which is the same word used to describe the Holy Spirit.\u00a0 In other words, what you have with Israel was just a carcass, it wasn\u2019t a living person although the body was formed. \u00a0And see, as you look at the nation of Israel today that\u2019s exactly what you see.\u00a0 You see a political structure in existence, you see a very religious people, but except for a very small minority of them there is no ruach<\/em>, there is no spirit, there is no regeneration.\n\nVerse 9, \u201cThen He said to me, \u201c\u2018Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, \u2018Thus says the Lord GOD, Come from the four corners of the earth, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life.\u2019\u00a0 [10] So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.\u2019\u201d\n\nNow I\u2019ve been in countless churches where the preacher will say well, this is the church on the day of Pentecost.\u00a0 But if you just keep reading in verse 11 what does it say?\u00a0 \u201cThen He said to me, \u2018Son of man, these bones are\u201d the First Baptist Church of Houston.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that, \u201cThese bones are the whole house of Israel;\u201d this isn\u2019t talking about God\u2019s work in the church.\u00a0 I praise God for God\u2019s work through the church and people getting saved, but that\u2019s not what this is talking about.\u00a0 This is talking about the nation of Israel coming back, not just to political life but to spiritual life and unless the Spirit of God comes into them where they\u2019re obeying God from the inside out through the new spiritual birth called regeneration, God\u2019s kingdom can\u2019t come to the earth.\u00a0 So the Nic at Night discourse Jesus is saying you are the teacher of Israel and yet you don\u2019t even know what Ezekiel 36 and 37 says, because\u00a0 you\u2019re so wrapped up in all of these manmade traditions.\n\nSo that\u2019s illustration number one.\u00a0 And then when you get outside of Ezekiel 37 and you go verse 12 to the end of the chapter it\u2019s got the two sticks coming together.\u00a0 That\u2019s illustration two.\u00a0 And one stick is the southern kingdom and one stick is the northern kingdom because you remember that when Solomon left the throne in 931 B.C. what happened to the kingdom?\u00a0 It was divided between the north and south; so you go through the Book of Kings, and why is it called \u201cThe Book of Kings\u201d?\u00a0 Because there are a lot of kings in there and it get confusing because this southern king did this and this flashes over to the north because the kingdom was divided at that point.\u00a0 And what Ezekiel 37 is predicting is when God does this work here, of regeneration, there won\u2019t be any more division in the land of Israel; there\u2019ll be one united kingdom under the reigning millennial David, under the delegated authority of Christ from that day onward.\n\nBut none of these things can happen unless Israel is regenerated.\u00a0 See that?\u00a0 So chapter 36 has the context, that\u2019s why Jesus is not commenting on when the kingdom comes, that\u2019s already being explained here; He\u2019s just reiterating the simple truth that the spiritual birth is necessary for anyone to enter the kingdom.\n\nEzekiel chapter 37 is followed by chapters 38 and 39, and that\u2019s what I\u2019ve been teaching at the College of Biblical Studies Tuesday night and part two Thursday night, the great end time battle of these surrounding nations Put, Persia, Magog, Rosh, Meshach, Tubal, Gomer and Torgarmah and I explain in that class how you can identify those with modern nations today that are coming against Israel.\u00a0 And so what the Bible predicts is all of these nations are going to invade the land of Israel and Israel, when she doesn\u2019t have a friend in the world will finally turn to God.\u00a0 That\u2019s how she gets saved.\u00a0 Proverbs18:24 says, \u201cA man of too many friends comes to ruin, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.\u201d\u00a0 The problem is, Israel doesn\u2019t really recognize in her pride and arrogance that she needs God yet.\u00a0 It\u2019s just like we were, weren\u2019t we like that before we got saved?\u00a0 So He\u2019s got to put us into a crisis where we\u2019ve got no friends in the world but God, so we say well Lord, I guess I\u2019ll have to trust You.\u00a0 And once that happens He\u2019s got\u00a0 you right where He wants you.\u00a0 Right?\u00a0 Now you\u2019re open to the gospel.\n\nSo this crisis has to develop for Israel to experience the new birth that Ezekiel 36 and 37 are talking about.\u00a0 So you see, this new birth thing, there\u2019s a context that goes with it that Jesus is expecting the teacher of Israel to understand.\u00a0 So 36 is the new birth, chapter 37 are two illustrations of this coming kingdom through the new birth. Chapters 38 and 39 is the mechanism that God is going to use to bring Israel to a place of crisis.\u00a0 And then once she\u2019s saved what will God do?\u00a0 He will establish His long awaited kingdom on the earth.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we couldn\u2019t be in the kingdom right now, because Israel is not saved. \u00a0Right?\u00a0 She\u2019s still an unbelieving nation.\n\nSo once that happens then He will establish, chapters 40-46, the millennial temple, which is described with mind-numbing accuracy in those chapters.\u00a0 And that\u2019s the temple that the Shekinah glory of God goes into, just like it left the Solomite temple.\u00a0 And then chapter 46 is followed by chapter 47:1-12 where you have a description of the millennial river, and you say well what is that?\u00a0\u00a0 It\u2019s a river, read it for\u00a0 yourself, I\u2019m not making this stuff up, it\u2019s a river that basically flows from the temple and it goes into the Dead Sea.\u00a0 And by the way, why do we call the Dead Sea the Dead Sea?\u00a0 Because everything in the sea is dead because of the high salt content.\u00a0 In fact, when you go to the land of Israel, and I say \u201cwhen\u201d because you\u2019re going to get there one way or the other, when the kingdom is established you\u2019ll have to go there to worship Jesus so I suggest you go now just to kind of check out the neighborhood.\u00a0 And if you\u2019re on a good tour they\u2019ll let\u00a0 you float in the Dead Sea.\u00a0 The high salt content, not only does it kill everything but it buoy\u2019s you up, I thought I would be the first person to sink in the Dead Sea and I floated and bobbed along quite fine, (thank you very much).\u00a0 In fact they actually have life guards there and I thought what do these guys do, you can\u2019t drown, so if I retire one day and look for a cushy job I might apply to be a lifeguard on the Dead Sea.\u00a0 But anyway\u2026.\n\nThe river is going to come out of the temple, it\u2019s going to go into the Dead Sea and the Dead Sea is going to come back to biological life and it\u2019s going to team with fish and all kinds of sea creatures and it\u2019s all described in chapter 47.\u00a0 And what is being revealed here is this is what the kingdom is going to look like.\n\nSpeaking of the millennial temple, it\u2019s going to be huge.\u00a0 That\u2019s how big it is in comparison to the temple that existed in the time of Christ called Herod\u2019s temple.\u00a0 And that\u2019s what it looks like next to the tabernacle, that\u2019s what it looks like next to a modern day football field, etc.\u00a0 And then God is so specific with His promises He\u2019s going to keep all of the land promises that He\u2019s made to the various tribes.\u00a0 The various tribes are each going to receive a land portion in the millennial kingdom and the land of Israel is going to extend from modern day Egypt to modern day Iraq basically from the Nile or near the Nile, the Wadi ell-Arish all the way to the Euphrates.\u00a0 And today everybody is all upset that Israel has the West Bank, everybody\u2019s upset about the West Bank and if I\u2019m understanding my Bible correctly when the kingdom comes not only will\u00a0 Israel have the West Bank but she\u2019ll have the East Bank as well, the east side of the Jordan River.\u00a0 So these are all descriptive, and there\u2019s another picture, I think Gabe did that one for me, what the tribal land portions are going to look like.\n\nAnd then when you go to chapter 48:30-35 they\u2019re just very short verses, it says the nation of Israel will be completely and ultimately restored and the city of Jerusalem will be God\u2019s special city from that time forward.\u00a0 And that\u2019s very special because during the tribulation period Jerusalem is called Sodom in Egypt, Revelation 11:8.\u00a0 [Revelation 11:8, \u201cAnd their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified.\u201d]\u00a0 She\u2019s influenced by the wicked forces of Sodom and Gomorrah and Egyptian bondage. \u00a0And today you look at the land of Israel and gay rights parades and those kinds of things are very common in the city of Jerusalem and that won\u2019t be the case any more in the millennial kingdom because the nation of Israel will be spiritually restored.\n\nSo what am I trying to get at?\u00a0 The very kingdom which spiritual restoration or regeneration is a mandatory prerequisite for entrance into is a future reality.\u00a0 How do I know it\u2019s a future reality?\u00a0 Because it\u2019s in the context of all of these other things coming into existence, in the final third part of the Book of Ezekiel.\n\nThe only thing Jesus is doing in the Nic at Night Discourse is He\u2019s not re-teaching all of this stuff, He expect Nicodemus to know all this, He\u2019s just re-emphasizing the simple fact that you\u2019ve got to be born spiritually to enter.\u00a0 That\u2019s all He\u2019s emphasizing; He\u2019s not commenting, He\u2019s not rearranging the deck chairs at all.\u00a0 Everything that\u2019s been revealed He\u2019s building on, He\u2019s just re-emphasizing the fact that you\u2019ve got to be born spiritually to enter.\u00a0 So that\u2019s how to handle John 3:3-5, the two references to the kingdom of God.\u00a0 He\u2019s not answering the when question, that\u2019s already explained.\u00a0 He\u2019s just answering the how question, how one enters.\n\nLet me take you (as time permits) to a second passage folks use and let\u2019s go over to Matthew 16:27-28.\u00a0 Here\u2019s a second passage that kingdom now theologians use.\u00a0 Jesus says, \u201cFor the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0So He\u2019s speaking of the kingdom there.\u00a0 And then He says in verse 28, \u201cTruly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 So what He\u2019s saying is some of you are going to see the kingdom come before you die.\u00a0 So you can see what kingdom now theologians do with this; they say ah, Jesus is saying that kingdom\u2019s got to come very fast before these people die that He\u2019s talking to, so therefore He set it up in spiritual form in the first century.\n\nBut Matthew 16 is followed by Matthew 17; have you read what\u2019s going on in Matthew 17?\u00a0 The transfiguration.\u00a0 It\u2019s where Jesus appeared in His glorified state and which two prophets were with Him?\u00a0 Moses and Elijah, so Moses and Elijah have a tendency to show up related to imminent appearances of the kingdom and when you understand that then you start understanding who those two guys were in Revelation 11.\u00a0 They look a lot like Moses and Elijah to me; one of them shuts up the heavens so that it can\u2019t rain\u2014who did that in the Old Testament?\u00a0 Elijah, for forty-two months it says Elisha did.\u00a0 And the other one turns water to blood.\n\nSo in the transfiguration Jesus transfigures Himself; He appears in His glorified state with Moses and Elijah right there with Him.\u00a0 And this happens, according to Matthew 17:1-13 six days later.\u00a0 [Matthew 17:1-13, \u201cSix 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] And lifting up their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus Himself alone.\u00a0 [9] As they were coming down from the mountain, Jesus commanded them, saying, \u201cTell the vision to no one until the Son of Man has risen from the dead.\u201d [10] And His disciples asked Him, \u201cWhy then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0[11] And He answered and said, \u201cElijah is coming and will restore all things; [12] but I say to you that Elijah already came, and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they wished. So also the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.\u201d [13] Then the disciples understood that He had spoken to them about John the Baptist.\u201d]\n\nSo six days after Jesus made this statement the transfiguration happened.\u00a0 What was the transfigure\u00adation?\u00a0 It was a foretaste of the kingdom.\u00a0 It was a token of the kingdom.\u00a0 It was a prefigurement of the kingdom.\u00a0 What He\u2019s saying is if the nation accepts Me as their King here\u2019s what you can expect, and He transfigures Himself in His glorified state and Moses and Elijah are right there with Him.\u00a0 So since that story immediately follows what Jesus said in chapter 16, verse 28, that helps us understand its meaning.\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 What does he say?\u00a0 \u201cThere will be some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.\u201d\u00a0 He\u2019s not talking about the establishment of the kingdom; He\u2019s talking about a foretaste of the kingdom which would happen six days later.\u00a0 Through which event?\u00a0 The transfiguration!\n\nAnd the problem is\u2026 now do we all understand this, that when you read your Bible these chapter divisions that are here, the Holy Spirit didn\u2019t put those chapter divisions in there, right?\u00a0 The chapter divisions are not divinely inspired.\u00a0 Well, who put the chapter divisions in?\u00a0 A guy named Stephen Langton put them in on a very bumpy carriage ride and he put those in to organize the Bible.\u00a0 Now I think generally speaking Stephen Langton did a pretty good job, you know, with the chapter divisions but you see, sometimes the chapter divisions in your mind it cuts off one section of the Bible from the other.\u00a0 Chapters 16 and 17 are meant to be understood together.\u00a0 The chapter division gives the impression that the two units are separate.\u00a0 See that?\n\nSo how do you interpret chapter 16,verse 28?\u00a0 You interpret it by what immediately follows in the next unit, the next paragraph.\u00a0 If you want a fancy name for a Greek paragraph it\u2019s called a perikope, it\u2019s a Greek word for paragraph, he explains what is meant by chapter 16, verse 28.\u00a0 And they didn\u2019t die because six days later the transfiguration happened and they saw a prefigurement of the kingdom.\n\nSo E. R. Craven, a scholar I keep quoting on this, says, \u201cThe declaration of Jesus, \u201cThere be some standing here,\u201d etc., Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27. This, according to the opinion of Chrysostom\u201d an ancient church father, \u201cand others may find its fulfillment in the immediately following Transfiguration. In this event the Basileia<\/em>\u201d now what\u2019s the Greek word for kingdom? \u00a0Basileia<\/em>. \u201cIn this event the Basileia<\/em> was not merely symbolized, but in all its glory was for a moment set up on earth.\u201d \u00a0In other words, here\u2019s what it\u2019s can be like, here\u2019s what the kingdom is if\u00a0 you accept Me as\u00a0 your King and of course as we know the nation of Israel turned down that offer.\n\nSo Matthew 16:28 is not saying the kingdom was set up in the first century; what it\u2019s saying is a token or a prefigurement of the kingdom was given in the next perikope.\u00a0 And that\u2019s all he\u2019s saying here. You can\u2019t build a whole kingdom now theology on that passage.\n\nBy the way, who were the three apostles that saw the transfiguration?\u00a0 Who was the inner circle?\u00a0 Peter, James and John!\u00a0 Now Peter, didn\u2019t he write a couple of books in the New Testament?\u00a0\u00a0 They\u2019re called what?\u00a0 1 Peter and 2 Peter.\u00a0 And then 2 Peter chapter 1 Peter talks about the transfiguration, because he was there to see it and he\u2019s talking about this about sixty years after it happened; this was just before Peter died.\u00a0 We think, based on church tradition he was crucified upside down.\n\nBut just before his death it says \u201cFor we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.\u00a0 [17] For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, \u2018This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased \u2018\u201d\u00a0 That\u2019s what the heavenly voice said when the transfiguration happened. \u00a0[18] \u201cAnd we ourselves heard this utterance\u00a0 made from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain.\u201d\u00a0 What holy mountain?\u00a0 It\u2019s called the Mount of Transfiguration, which is a fulfillment of Matthew 16:28.\u00a0 [Matthew 16:28, \u201cTruly I say to you, there are some of those who are standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom.\u201d]\n\nAlva J. McLain, a very good scholar says concerning Matthew 17, \u201cthe conjunction,\u201d now what\u2019s a conjunction?\u00a0\u00a0 Do you guys remember School House Rock?\u00a0\u00a0 How does that go?\u00a0 Conjunction, conjunction, what\u2019s your\u2026. I must be really having a fever here.\u00a0 [Laughter]\u00a0 And I am a little bit feverish so praise the Lord I\u2019m even teaching.\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cThe conjunction with which chapter 17 begins clearly establishes the unbroken continuity of thought between 16:28 and 17:1, as also in the accounts of Mark and Luke where no chapter division occurs.\u201d\u00a0 So if you look at Matthew 17:1 which follows Matthew 16:28 in your English translation what\u2019s the word that begins chapter 17?\u00a0 What does it say?\u00a0 It says \u201cAnd,\u201d doesn\u2019t it?\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t say that in some of the English translations but I looked it up in Greek today and that sentence begins with kai, or \u201cand.\u201d\n\nSo when it begins with kai, or \u201cand\u201d it\u2019s linking that paragraph or perikope back to what?\u00a0 The information at the end of chapter 16.\u00a0 In other words, the information at the end of chapter 16 is meant to be understood in harmony with the information in chapter 17.\u00a0 We just don\u2019t think of it that way because Stephen Langton dropped a Christmas present off to us under our Christmas trees; he put these chapter divisions in the Bible and because of these chapter divisions, which are very helpful, we unnaturally bifurcate material in the Bible.\u00a0\u00a0 But McLain is saying because chapter 17 begins with a conjunction the two units, periscopes, are meant to be understood together.\n\nMcLain says, \u201c\u201cthe conjunction with which chapter 17 begins clearly establishes the unbroken continuity of thought between 16:28 \u201c which he says some of you will not die until you see the kingdom, \u201cand 17:1, as also in the accounts of Mark and Luke\u201d now Matthew, Mark and Luke, we call those the synoptic gospels, s-y-n in Greek means same, you recognize the word \u201coptic\u201d right, sight, look, so we call those the Synoptics because they have a similar look.\u00a0 In other words, they follow the same literary pattern.\u00a0 They start off with an infant Jesus, they track His rejection by Israel, take us into the Passion Week, and so they all kind of follow the same plot line or story.\n\nAnd they didn\u2019t get this common story through Que.\u00a0 You say what is Que?\u00a0 It means quell in German source, so liberals will tell you that they got this plotline from this document called Que and so they are all borrowing from Que.\u00a0 And then you say to them, well can I see Que so that I can examine it and what they say is oh, we haven\u2019t discovered it yet but we know it\u2019s there because there\u2019s no way they all could have gotten the same plot line independently of each other.\u00a0 Yes they could have\u2026 it\u2019s called the Holy Spirit!\u00a0 I believe in a supernatural God; I don\u2019t believe that each of these guys borrowed from some source called Que which by the way no one has ever found.\u00a0 It\u2019s like dealing with an evolutionist, they keep going on and on about the missing link between humans and apes and they haven\u2019t been able to find it.\u00a0 So if missing links are all over the place we should have them everywhere, right?\u00a0 So they\u2019ve constructed the whole theory of evolution on basically no evidence.\u00a0 That\u2019s what\u2019s going on with this document called Que.\n\nSo in the Synoptics the gospels with a similar look, Mark and Luke, record the same story of Jesus prediction of the coming of the kingdom and the transfiguration with no chapter divisions.\u00a0 So what he\u2019s saying is you understand the end of chapter 16 by what\u2019s revealed in chapter 17.\n\nThomas Ice writes, \u201cAll three accounts,\u201d and he\u2019s writing here against preterists; preterists believe in realized eschatology, they believe that Jesus set up the kingdom in the first century and he\u2019s refuting their use of Matthew 16:28.\u00a0 He says, \u201c\u201cAll three accounts of the prophesied event speak of seeing and the kingdom. Matthew says they will see \u2018the Son of Man coming in His kingdom,\u2019 emphasizing the person of the Son of Man coming. Mark says, \u2018they see the kingdom of God\u2019 and he adds that it will come \u2018with power.\u2019 Luke simply says that \u2018they see the kingdom of God.\u2019\n\nThe transfiguration fits all aspects of the various emphases found in each of the three precise predictions. Matthew\u2019s stress upon the actual, physical presence of the Son of Man is clearly met in the transfiguration because Jesus was personally and visibly present. . . .\u00a0 Mark\u2019s emphasis upon a display of the kingdom with \u2018power\u2019 was certainly fulfilled by the transfiguration. No one could doubt that the transfiguration certainly fit the definition of a \u2018power encounter\u2019 for the disciples. That Jesus appears dressed in the Shekinah glory of God upon the Mount (Mark 9:3) is further evidence to the disciples that He was God and acted with His power. Luke\u2019s simple statement about some who will \u2018see the kingdom of God\u2019 is vindicated also by his account (17:28\u201336). Twice Luke records our Lord describing the transfiguration with the term \u2018glory\u2019 (17:31, 32).\u201d\u201d \u00a0[Thomas Ice, \u201cPreterist \u2018Time Texts,\u2019\u201d in The End Times Controversy: The Second Coming under Attack<\/em>, ed. Tim LaHaye and Thomas Ice (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 2003), 88.]\n\nHis point, a lot of words but his point is in all the Synoptics, whether it\u2019s Matthew with its chapter divisions, Mark or Luke without the chapter division you\u2019ll see the author linking the two pericopes.\u00a0 All that to say Matthew 16:28, the coming of the kingdom, has already been fulfilled with the trans\u00adfiguration which was a token of the kingdom.\u00a0 That\u2019s the point.\u00a0 So Matthew 16:27-28 does not teach, any more than the Nick at Night discourse teaches that the kingdom was established in spiritual form.\u00a0 It just teaches a token of the kingdom was given a few days later, six days later, at the transfiguration.\n\nSo that\u2019s sort of how to handle John 3:3-5, Matthew 16:28, and the next time we\u2019re together we\u2019ll take a look at Matthew 21:43, John 18:36 and then Matthew 28:18-20 and then we\u2019ll be finished looking at the passages from the teachings of Christ that kingdom now theologians use and from then we\u2019ll move into the Book of Acts.\u00a0 The Book of Acts is a big deal because everybody says in Acts 2 Jesus started reigning on David\u2019s throne.\u00a0 And I\u2019ll be showing you that\u2019s not what Acts 2 says at all.\u00a0 So that\u2019s the direction we\u2019re going.","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