Jeff Durbin Answering Questions

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All right, so I thought we actually have two messages right now that we are working on.

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Of course, Matthew, getting in Matthew 17, now an amazing section of Scripture related to the transfiguration of Jesus.

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This is where we have an amazing moment where there are two prophets that show up and God speaks directly to the apostles themselves who are now so excited about seeing

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Moses and Elijah and the father speaks from heaven, this is my son, listen to him.

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It's actually a powerful moment in the history of redemption where God himself condescends and speaks to the people of God in terms of the law and the prophets represented by Moses and Elijah.

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It's powerful. Also, another message that we wanted to give as pastors on marriage and the family and as a church as we grow together in spiritual unity and as we are sanctified.

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But I thought because the women are getting back from camp and we might be missing some, there's some important things in these messages we don't want anyone to miss.

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So I thought today would be a great day. I've been planning it for a while to have a day where I actually do questions and answers where I allow you guys to ask some questions maybe related to what we've been talking about in Matthew.

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And so that's what we're going to do today for just a little bit. I'll try my best not to go too long.

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So let's pray. Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much, Lord, for the grace that you've given to us to be a church.

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Lord, that in itself, not just to save us from our sins, but to put us together in one body.

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Lord, to come together every Lord's day to worship you, the privilege of worshiping you,

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God, we don't deserve this. We shouldn't be under the hearing of your word, Lord, even as your children we have sinned against you every day.

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And Lord, yet you love us and you give us the grace to come into your presence every

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Lord's day together as a community, a church called out of darkness by you, to hear your word, to worship you in song,

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Lord, to worship you in the offering, Lord, to participate in, Lord, the body and blood.

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And so, God, we're just grateful. Thank you, Lord, that we have the grace, even in our society now with as many attacks that are coming upon the church, we still can come together,

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Lord, without fear. So I just pray that as we get into, Lord, the questions today, that you'd bless, that you'd speak through me, that it would not be the opinions of a mere man, but it'd be guided by your spirit, that you would bless us as a church to further understand,

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God, your word, and not just for the head knowledge, God, but to be transformed. Lord, that's what we seek.

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We seek to be a body, Lord, that is transformed by you. Lord, I do want to pray,

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Lord, as a body right now, that you would allow us, God, if any of us are struggling with indifference towards spiritual things, if any of us have been hardened by our sin, if any of us feel discouraged by where we're at now in our walk with you,

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I pray, Lord, that by your spirit, you would give us new strength. Lord, give us strength to stand.

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I pray, Lord, God, that you'd fill us with a new passion for you and for one another, and Lord, especially for your word.

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We thank you, God, that you've given us this grace today to worship you together. In Jesus' name, amen. So, I have some that came,

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I posted in the Apologia Prayer page, in the fellowship form. If you're not in there,

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I encourage you guys to get in there. So, a couple questions that were asked I thought would be helpful related to what we've been going through in Matthew, and let's just start, and if we have a chance,

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I'll open it up and let you guys ask some questions as well. Okay, so, I'll start with Zach's, because it becomes

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Zach Morgan's. The man who loves showers. Lots of showers.

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So, Zach asked a question, I think, directly related to so much of what's in Matthew, and he says, how do

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I accurately explain the gospel of the kingdom to my lost friends and family members?

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I want you to see it, too, for yourself. So, go to Matthew, and I want you just to go to Matthew chapter 4, if you would.

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Matthew chapter 4, first book in the New Testament, Matthew 4. I'm trying to go slower myself, as well in the references, giving you guys time to get there.

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Matthew chapter 4, I just want you to see this important section. So, I hear the page is turning.

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So, Matthew chapter 1 starts off in a way that probably bugs a lot of modern people.

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You have this genealogy. I mean, who cares about genealogies but the Mormons, am I right? Right? Genealogies.

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I mean, apparently, genealogies are actually an effective way to catch serial killers, as well.

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Did you hear about the guy in California finally caught him? What was he called again? What was his, the

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Golden State Killer. They actually caught him because he was trying to go through his family tree and got some

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DNA information and apparently people are watching that. That's kind of scary, but in this case, good,

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I guess. And so, they were able to catch this man, praise God, who had just done so much violence and evil.

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But who wants to read about genealogies? Let's be honest, most of the time when, I mean, I can remember when I first started reading the

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Bible, going to church, heard the gospel, I had committed that every word of God is pure.

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I'm going to read every syllable. I'm going to read and just cherish because these are words from God. It was just so exciting to me as a young believer.

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And I remember that I started getting into the Old Testament and as I started to read some of the genealogies, that commitment waned a bit, right?

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I'm going to read every single word, every name, every person, all that matters to God, so it ought to matter to me.

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And it does matter to God and it's really about God keeping His promises. The genealogies might seem boring and unnecessary to us moderns, but the genealogy lists themselves are an objective way for God to demonstrate

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His covenant faithfulness in history, right? So the Old Testament, those lists right there matter a lot.

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They matter to God because that's how God was going to bring the Messiah into the world to bring salvation and redemption into the world.

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The way that you and I were going to know that this person is objectively Messiah was not just by His works, not just by His words, but you'd be able to test

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Him, also His prophecies, but you can look at His family tree and see whether or not this was

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God's actual chosen. And many of you guys know that Matthew and Luke themselves have two different genealogies and praise

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God for those two different genealogies. Matthew's is Joseph's genealogy. It's the royal right to the throne.

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Problem is it also has a curse in that line that nobody who's a physical descendant of that line can inherit the kingdom.

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Well, then how do you get a king? Because that's the royal line. It's solved with a virgin birth and an adoption.

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So you have, of course, Luke's genealogical record is Mary's physical descendant through David and Abraham and then

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Joseph. So, but again, why does all that matter? Matthew says it matters a lot.

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Jesus goes back all the way to inherit the right to the throne. But then it moves into also a discussion almost immediately that relates to Christ being king, king over the world.

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Who are the first people to show up? First people to show up to Jesus are not Jewish people who are religious and elite leadership, who are looking for Messiah.

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They knew He was coming, by the way. They knew this was the time of the Messiah. They were looking for the

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Messiah, but they didn't expect it in this way necessarily. So God has Gentiles, pagans, first show up to find

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Jesus because they want to find the king of the Jews so they might worship Him. Fulfillment of prophecy right there.

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God says that all the families of the earth were going to return to worship God, that you're going to have Jew and Gentile now together into one people with Messiah ruling over them all.

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Matthew starts telling you that story right away. And then this is where it gets interesting. The first introduction to the kingdom of God in history, the rule of God in history is

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John the Baptist. It's right there in Matthew 3. You're in 4 right now, but if you see Matthew 3, Matthew is telling you a redemptive story.

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He's telling you everything that we thought was coming has arrived. All of our hopes, all of our dreams, all of our prayers, all the prayers of all of our ancestors are met in this one.

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They knew, of course, there was this period of silence between the testaments where they're just waiting now.

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They've got every promise they need from God, everything God says He's going to do on Messiah. It sounds amazing, but now

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God seems to be quiet. Where's the prophet speaking? There aren't any. Where's the new revelation, the scripture?

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There isn't any. All there is is expectation. There's waiting. But they knew, of course, there was a forerunner first.

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Somebody is coming first before the Messiah Himself, and He's going to prepare the way for the

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Messiah. And enter now Matthew 3, John the Baptist. That's what you hear as words in terms of why would we call this series the

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Kingdom of God? Why would we keep talking about this? Why would we keep harping on this idea of the rule of Christ, the

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Kingdom of God on earth? The fact of the matter is we are because it's a central theme of the entire

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Bible, and Matthew expresses it in and out every page. John, the forerunner, he says, verse 1, chapter 3, in those days

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John the Baptist came preaching in the wilderness of Judea. Here's his words, repent for the

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Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And I've noted many times before, you guys are probably tired of me saying it, but for those of you guys that are new to this,

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Kingdom of Heaven, we have to get right. We often think as modern evangelicals, Kingdom of Heaven is something that happens out there.

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Some place I'm going one day, I've got to get to that Kingdom of Heaven someday is over there.

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It's the sort of gassy experience, vapor and clouds and heaven one day.

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But this is just a way of speaking in his day not to offend anybody's sensitivities.

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Kingdom of Heaven was a very Jewish way of saying Kingdom of God without offending. So John is saying, repent, the rule of God, God's rule in history, it's at hand, it's at the end of the fingertips, it's within reach.

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That's how John opens up. And then of course, John begins to accuse people in his day and warn them about the judgment that's about to come.

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The word is mellow, it's about to come. So that's how Matthew introduces this. But notice, we oftentimes today don't even know what does this mean, the gospel of the

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Kingdom? I was just talking about this this week actually with Andrew Sandlin. It's going to air on Tuesday on next week.

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I think that if you were to ask the modern Christian today in the West, why is the

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Kingdom good news? Do we even talk about it in that way, the gospel of the Kingdom, that the

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Kingdom itself is good news? I'm going to just take a pause for a second. Let me just ask you really in terms of very personally,

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I want you to think about this for a second, okay? So this is you, I'm asking you to join in with me now in this discussion.

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If I was to ask you right now to articulate why the

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Kingdom is good news, what would you say? Now think about it, just don't yell it out because we'll have a lot of people here talking at the same time.

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But just think about that for a second. How would you articulate that? Because Jesus was going around proclaiming it.

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He was preaching the good news, same word as gospel.

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He was preaching the good news of God's Kingdom. Now as you're thinking about it, let me just add to what I mean by that.

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So when we talk about the gospel today as modern Christians in the West, what do we mean by it?

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What do we mean when we say gospel? Well, I think what we generally mean by saying gospel is we mean this, justification through faith alone in Christ alone apart from works, right?

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Isn't that kind of what we talk about when we say gospel is we mean justification. That's what we say is that's not the gospel.

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And it's usually talking about some belief system that says in order to be reconciled to God, you have to not just have faith in Jesus, but also be obedient in all these ways.

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And if you have enough of that righteousness plus Jesus faith in him, then you'll be reconciled to God and go to heaven one day.

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And so when we diss false gospels as modern Christians, that's usually what we're getting at.

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Gospel means justification through faith alone in Christ alone. And that's kind of it.

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Like that's the truncated view that we have today is gospel is justification.

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Now, don't get me wrong. Absolutely. In the good news that Paul talks about in first Corinthians 15, that Jesus is

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Messiah, that he died for sins was buried and rose again. Yes. And amen. Justification is in there.

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It's at the heart of it. What does it mean at all that Jesus died and to me, to you, what's it mean?

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Well, it means that you can have peace with God. If you trust in Jesus, you can have peace with God. How well, because Jesus died and he rose again from the dead.

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Now he's ascended and seated interceding for his people. So if you trust in him, you will be in him having his righteousness and all your sins taken care of and no more condemnation.

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But that's essentially what we mean by gospel today as modern Christians. The gospel has gotten truncated to mean justification through faith alone in Christ alone, apart from works of law.

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And the answer is, well, yes, but we have to be careful not to truncate the gospel to only mean justification.

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And that's it because watch this in Matthew chapter four, Jesus goes into the wilderness.

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The spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness for the testing of Jesus. Now, by the way, this is a powerful moment.

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If you miss the messages, I really want to encourage you to go pick them up because what Matthew is doing here is not simply telling you the story of Jesus who went into the wilderness and he was tested by Satan and look, he had victory over it.

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No, there's more being said here because if you look in Matthew chapter two, Jesus is already being identified with Israel.

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How? Well, you've got Jesus born and you have a leader trying to kill him, right?

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Who did that happen to? In the Old Testament, who tried to kill somebody as a baby? Well, it was

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Pharaoh. And who was the baby? Moses, right? So you already have Jesus now being identified now with old

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Israel. And you also have God explicitly in Matthew two saying, out of Egypt, I called my son.

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Go Dutch. I know I'm going back and forth, but this is what happens to do Q &A. Go to Matthew two. It's right there. I want you to see this to show you the identification in Matthew chapter two, look at verse 15 and remain there until the death of Herod.

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That's Jesus. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet out of Egypt. I called my son.

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Now that's a quotation from the Old Testament watch about Israel.

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So some people have said, haha, we've got you Christians. And you're quoting prophecy as fulfilled in Jesus.

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That's a prophecy that Matthew quotes that was about Israel in the Old Testament. Why are you saying that that relates to Jesus now?

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Well, here's the point. There are direct prophecies of Jesus as Messiah that are direct lines.

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And then there are pattern prophecies of Jesus in the Old Testament in terms of symbolism and patterns.

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Like for example, the priests and the temple and the animal sacrifice and Abraham offering

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Isaac on the altar. That's a pattern or picture of what Jesus was going to do. But watch what

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Matthew's doing. This is huge. He's showing you that Jesus is the true and perfect Israel, because out of Egypt, I call my son is actually a fulfillment of Jesus himself.

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He is the perfect Israelite. He is what Adam was not because in Matthew four, Jesus goes through the same kind of trial that Adam did in the garden.

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What did God say in the garden? What did he say? The day you eat of it was you'll surely die.

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Now here's what's amazing. God had created this whole order right here. Adam and Eve are in it now.

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He's the creator and all they have to work on is the fact that he's the creator. He's God. He made all of this and he said with his word self -attesting authority.

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He says this, but not that the day you do you'll die. What's Satan do when he comes in?

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What's the first temptation? What's he saying? The craftiness. What?

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You won't die. You'll be like God knowing good and evil. That is to say determining what is right and what is wrong for yourself.

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You'll be autonomous. So the testing there is questioning God's self -attesting word.

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Adam fails. Jesus, the perfect Israel goes into the wilderness for 40.

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Starting to sound familiar? Who else was wandering in the wilderness for 40 something? Israel.

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So the spirit drives Jesus into the wilderness. He's going into it to have success where Israel failed and the temptations that happen here are the temptations that both

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Adam and Israel failed. What was it? God says that settles it.

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Satan's questioning the authoritative word of God. Jesus rests on the word of God and he doesn't question it.

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There's the testing. But as Jesus is the perfect Israel and he's what Adam was supposed to be, the image of God, what the image of God was supposed to be, totally obedient and dedicated to God, Jesus has victory over Satan and I want you to see the last temptation.

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Look here in this text, Matthew chapter 4. Look what it says. Jesus said to him, verse 10, be gone

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Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. What happened there?

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Satan takes Jesus up to this great and high mountain. What does he offer him? All the kingdoms of the world.

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Why is that such an interesting temptation? Well, it's interesting and it's a powerful temptation if that's what you came for.

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Jesus in fact came to be the ruler of the world and have all the kingdoms of the world become his.

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And Satan says at the final temptation, I'll give every one of them to you right now. All you have to do is fall and worship me.

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And Jesus of course quotes scripture, you should worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And the devil leaves.

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The angels come and minister to Jesus. And here's where it gets powerful in terms of the kingdom of God.

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In verse 12, it says that Jesus goes to Capernaum by the sea, the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.

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And this was to fulfill what God has said in Isaiah 9. And then it says in verse 17, from that time

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Jesus began to preach saying, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent for the rule of God is at hand.

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In verse 23, and he went throughout all Galilee teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.

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There you go. So the first introduction to the words of Jesus and Matthew, as we're learning who

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Jesus is, Matthew tells you that some of the first things we should know about Jesus is that he preached the good news of the kingdom.

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God's kingdom is good news. Now let's try this for a second since it's an intimate service today.

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Why don't you go ahead and just raise your hand for me. Tell me why is the rule of God in the world good news?

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What's good news about the rule of God? Very good.

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Very good. Yes. The idea today that Satan is actually the ruler of the world with Christ ascended on his throne, right?

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So it's good news that Christ is on his throne, ruling the world and destroying the works of Satan, by the way, which is what the

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Bible says about Jesus, that he came in to destroy all the works of the devil. Why is the good news?

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Why is the kingdom good news? What's good news about God's kingdom?

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Very good. Yes. Jesus, the Messiah conquers death. And that is to say in two ways.

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One, he conquers my spiritual alienation from God, my death in sin.

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But also because Jesus has victory over the grave, Jesus demonstrates that he has the power to raise the dead because he raises himself from the dead.

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He can raise us too from the dead. So the idea there of the good news of the kingdom is that Christ has power over death.

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Our greatest enemy is swallowed up by Jesus and his work. Jesus is the ruler of the world.

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Satan is not the ruler of the world. But there's other good news about God's kingdom that's right there in the text.

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I want you to see it. Just look right above Matthew chapter four, where it says the good news of the kingdom. Just look right there above in verse 15.

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It says that this was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled the land of Zebulun in the land of Naphtali, the way of the sea beyond the

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Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people dwelling in darkness have seen a great light and for those dwelling in the region and shadow of death on them a light has dawned.

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Put your finger there for one sec. Here's what I want you to see. Go back now to Isaiah chapter nine, which is what's being quoted from.

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And then you can get an idea of what Matthew means by good news of the kingdom. Isaiah chapter nine.

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This is in fact what is quoted from right there. Isaiah nine.

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You'll see the quotation from verse two. Verse one here in Isaiah nine.

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But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish in the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.

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But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

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There it is. The nations. The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.

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Those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them a light, on them has light shined.

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You have multiplied the nation. You have increased its joy. They rejoice before you as with a joy at the harvest.

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Now move down and you'll see the famous one. You know this one. Verse six. For to us a child is born, to us his son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, El Gabor, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Here it is. Of the increase of his government, that's Messiah, and of peace.

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Shalom. There will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will do this. Do you see it? What Matthew is doing here when he tells you that Jesus is going and telling the good news of the kingdom, he quotes from Isaiah chapter nine.

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He says that's fulfilled in Jesus. What's that mean? Isaiah nine means this. Jews and Gentiles are being rescued from the domain of sin.

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Jews and Gentiles are going to experience salvation in this Messiah. It means that this Messiah is going to rule the world and he's going to bring peace.

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Shalom. He's going to bring peace into the world and not just peace, justice.

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That God himself is going to establish justice and peace in this world. That's why when

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Jesus comes in and tells everyone good news from God, everybody, God's rule is now here.

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It's not simply truncated down to my own private salvation with God. It has much bigger truths associated with it as well, like justice and peace in the world.

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I said the word shalom. You know that word, right? Shalom. That's something Jewish people say.

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Shalom. Do you know that in the Hebrew language, if you were to ask somebody, how are you doing?

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Like, how are you doing? It's built into the language itself. When you say to somebody in Hebrew, how are you doing?

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You actually ask them something specific. You say, ma shalom eich or ma shalom ha.

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Ma shalom eich or ma shalom ha, depending on if it's a male or female, literally means, what is your peace?

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Ma shalom eich. Ma shalom ha. It's an emphasis in Jewish thought about peace.

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Shalom. So you're asking somebody, what is your shalom? How is your peace?

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How is your peace with God? How is your peace in the world? It's built into the Jewish identity.

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Shalom. And so it's good news that God has installed his Messiah in the world to bring about redemption and salvation.

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And as his government increases, so does shalom, peace with God, and peace among men, and justice.

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Now that was just a start to the answer, but I want you to just land in one spot. How do you explain the gospel of the kingdom to friends and family who might be thinking, maybe

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I'm thinking, Zach, in a truncated view, a smaller version. It's just about my going to heaven one day.

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And all I would say is this, very simply, go to 1 Corinthians 15. 1 Corinthians 15.

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Just land there quickly, and I would just encourage you to go read it later. And I want you to think in terms of what

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I'm talking about, about truncated gospels. We often think, again, about the gospel in terms of justification through faith.

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And that's good, again, because that's true. That's how God reconciles sinful people to himself.

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But look how Paul talks about it. This is Paul talking about the gospel and defining it. 1

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Corinthians 15. Now it reminds you, brothers, of the gospel. This is Paul's gospel. This is what he preached.

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If we want to make sure that we're actually being apostolic, that we're following the lead of the apostle, this is his good news.

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That's huge. I mean, just stress that. This is what Paul said was good news.

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Definitional. And by which you are being saved if you hold fast to the word

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I preached to you unless you believed in vain. Here it is. For I delivered to you as of first importance what

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I also received. By the way, that's a very specific first century Jewish term in terms of handing down a tradition.

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What you're reading now was one of the earliest Christian creeds.

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We talk about the Nicene Creed, the Athanasian Creed. We talk about our confession of faith that we oftentimes point to in service.

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This is one of the earliest Christian creeds. Here it is. That Christ died for our sins, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance —

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I skipped some. There they go. Try it again. That Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures.

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And that he appeared to — that's Peter, Cephas — then to the twelve, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

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Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

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So now Paul explains. He says, for I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

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But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me was not in vain.

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On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was

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I or they. So we preach, and you believed. Now, if Christ has proclaimed us raised from the dead, how could some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

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But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, and our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain, we are even found to be misrepresenting

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God, because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.

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For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins.

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Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we of all people are most to be pitied.

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But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For as by one man came death, by a man has also come the resurrection of the dead.

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For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order,

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Christ the firstfruits. Then it is coming, those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom of God, there's the terminology, when he delivers the kingdom of God, kingdom to God the

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Father, after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

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The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

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But when it says all things are put in subjection, it is plain that he has accepted who put all things in subjection under him.

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When all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him that God may be all in all.

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There it is. So I wanted to read that out loud today to just give you this point.

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When Paul expressed the gospel itself, and he unpacks it and explains it in the context of the kingdom of God, what's

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Paul's main point? That Christ is reigning now and ruling now, and that God is putting all things in subjection to Jesus.

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The good news of the kingdom is, of course, redemption and salvation to the ends of the earth.

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I mean, just think about this for a moment now. What is one of the promises in the Old Testament about God's kingdom and the Messiah?

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That the knowledge of God will cover the earth like what? Like the waters cover the sea.

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And by the way, if you're thinking about what that means, that's everything. It's nothing but water, right?

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It's nothing but water. And by the way, terrifying. Have you ever flown over the ocean? There's a certain point like when you're getting over the ocean, you're thinking, all right, we still have a chance to fail here.

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We can turn around and make it back. And then there's a certain point when you get over that ocean where you're like, yeah, if something fails here, we're toast, right?

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You can't come in for a good landing. And even if you do go on for a good landing, how long is it going to take for someone to get me?

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These are things that I think about. Did you hear recently about that United, I think it was

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United Airlines flight where they were flying from like San Francisco to Honolulu and they got halfway over the ocean.

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So they can't turn around at this point. And the engine blew up like that last Southwest airline flight.

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The engine blew up and they flew on one engine over the ocean and they thank God, praise God for his grace.

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They made it to Honolulu. But can you imagine being on an airplane? Like you still have about two hours, two and a half hours to go and you're flying on one engine and it's shaking the whole time.

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That's a great place to preach the gospel. Just two hours and everyone's undivided attention for two hours on that plane, right?

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It's a good opportunity. Who wants to be the evangelist on that one though, right? So my point is, is that the picture in the

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Old Testament is not, it's not what we often say today, right?

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What we often accept today, that the church is going to be some minority position through history, that we're going to be defeated, we're going to be destroyed.

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And our greatest hope we can look forward to is just when Jesus finally returns. When he finally returns and he has his kingdom arrive later in history, then he'll rule with a rod of iron.

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Then the kingdom of God will be on earth. Then God will establish justice. Then there will be righteousness.

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Then that will be total peace and justice in the world. Problem with that view is this, Jesus didn't hold to that view.

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John didn't hold to that view. The apostles didn't hold to that view that the Messiah's kingdom was coming sometime future to 21st century

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America. Their view was that Christ actually brought his kingdom, established his kingdom,

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Christ was ruling and reigning now, and here's the goal of it. I just want you to see the passage. Turn your page to Colossians chapter one.

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Just turn your pages, few pages over from where you're at right now in Corinthians, and I want you to point to the text,

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Colossians chapter one. Here's Paul talking about it again, same context. You'll hear it all.

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You'll hear all the same words. It's right in first, sorry, Colossians chapter one.

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It says in verse 19 about Jesus, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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So if someone told me or asked me, what's the good news of the kingdom? I would say it's good news that Christ is the ruler of the world now, on his throne, bringing redemption and salvation to the ends of the earth through his work, his death, his resurrection.

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He is ruling now, destroying all the works of the enemy. The good news is that through Christ's rule, the world will experience not just redemption, but peace, peace with God, peace among us, justice established in the world.

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The fact, watch, that God in the Messiah is going to reverse everything sin brought into the world, and he's doing that right now.

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He's doing that today with people all over the world as he saves them.

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I want you to consider this for just a moment. In this room, I say it a lot, but in this room right now, so many different backgrounds, so many different cultural identities represented in one room, all worshiping the

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Lord God of Israel because of the Messiah. But not only this, let me ask you this, as a

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Christian who saved in Jesus, have you experienced peace with God? Do you experience his peace?

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Are you saved? Do you know God? Are you reconciled to God?

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Or how about this, one of the things that I've noticed, and I'm sure you'll, some of you will agree because you know, is that the bonds of peace that we have in the body of Jesus, the relationships that we have in the body of Christ are at a deeper level than often many of us have with our own blood, with our own flesh and blood.

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The experience of love and peace and joy in the body of Christ is something that truly is, dare

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I say it, completely magical. There's something about the peace of God that comes, of course, with us through Christ, but also in the body of Christ.

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I want to say that when I came to Christ, I was raised in the church, so for me it was a jolt.

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I know what that tastes like now, the amazing love and affection that believers have for one another.

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Don't get me wrong, we blow it with each other a lot. I mean, can I get an amen, right? Yes, we sin and God is sanctifying us, he's changing us, but there is something about the love of God within the body of Christ and the peace of God in the church that is, you cannot, you have not experienced anywhere else.

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What God does in redemption is, as the Messiah rules and reigns in my heart and brings peace with me, he brings peace within his body and that peace just starts to infect the world and grow and change the entire world.

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Why do you think that in the Old Testament, as it talks about the expansion of Christ's kingdom, it says that they will take their weapons of war and turn them into things for cultivation.

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Why? Because as the peace of God rules in our hearts as believers, as that changes the world, think about a world that's entirely

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Christian, that's entirely obedient to God. Will we need a world full of nuclear weapons when your neighbor is a

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Christian nation? Will you need a world that looks like it's full of hostility towards one another when it's a nation submitted to Jesus?

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Think about the entire world discipled by Christ under his rule. How does it change the world?

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What kind of peace is there? But here's the text. It says, verse 19, in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile himself all things, whether in heaven or on earth, making peace by the blood of his cross.

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All things in heaven and on earth being reconciled to God. That's good news. I could have just said that.

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Okay. Another question, I'll just say, how do we correctly train our children to obey

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God's law? How do we correctly train our children to obey God's law? Good question. I think the most important thing is to recognize that we have to train our children to see in the law of God that it was never meant to justify them, that it cannot save them.

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If we use the law of God in our homes as an oppressive external force on our children, then we are giving the law to our children in the same way that Moses gave it to the people of Israel.

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What was the law of God in Israel? It was on stone tablets with the finger of God, by the finger of God, pressing external force onto the people of God who were still without the

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Holy Spirit, regeneration in that sense of the new covenant and Pentecost and all that. But you've got law on tablets, applying force on fallen people.

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It does not save them. It cannot redeem them. It never did.

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Abraham was not justified by law. Moses was not justified by law. The law of God is an expression of God's own holy, perfect character.

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Is the law simply a curse? The answer is no. Is it a curse upon fallen people?

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Yes, when you can't accomplish it and do it because it just shows you who you are before God.

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But the law of God is actually a gift of God, but we should never teach our children the law of God can save them.

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So if we give our children the 10 commandments and we say here's what you need to do to obey

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God, to be pleasing to God, we've missed the cross completely. We've missed the point of the law completely.

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The law can actually expose our need for the Savior. So when we are raising our children up in the

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Lord, they're going to blow it. We're going to blow it too. So first thing I would say is trust

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God and be gracious to your children and I think in a sense be gracious to yourself in terms of recognizing that you're going to fail as a parent.

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But we need to give the law of God to our children to point them to Jesus. So for example, if my son lies,

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I can't just say to him thou shalt not lie, bend over, right?

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Because what does that show him about the Father in heaven? Our children are going to associate us fathers with our

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Father in heaven. How many of you guys came from a home where your father was awful? And how many of you guys have, as you've come from that awful home with a father who was a bad representative of God, you've had to work as a

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Christian through all the details of how you oftentimes project your earthly father's sins on God.

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So for example, if your father was only disciplinarian, if he was harsh, if he was mean spirited, or if he was abusive, or if he was an absentee father, he didn't care about you, didn't love you, showed no affection, disappeared, you've oftentimes as a believer projected that father onto him.

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You've acted as though God is like my earthly dad. He's too busy for me.

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He's only harsh with me. He's not affectionate towards me. That's an idol that you simply have to melt, drink down, right?

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Get rid of it. But oftentimes as fathers, if we do that with the law of God with our children, here's the law of my home, thou shalt not steal.

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Bend over. Then we're losing the ability to proclaim Christ constantly to our children.

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So I'm not a perfect father. I'm still a work in progress. But one of the things I've tried to express to my children as they're growing up in my home is that when they sin,

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I tell them first and foremost, this isn't a sin against me first and foremost.

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This is between you and God. When you dishonor me as your father, you're first and foremost sinning against your father who's in heaven.

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So honoring your father and your mother has little to do with me ultimately and everything to do with God and His commands in your life.

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And so what you need to know, I'll say to my children, is if you're not honoring your father and your mother, you're sinning against God, you need to repent and turn that over to God and trust in Christ with this sin.

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Oftentimes you'll see the blow -up, right? You have this sinful blow -up with the child and they're sinning against God and you.

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In those moments, of course, you want to proclaim the gospel. But look for those moments afterwards where you sit down with your child and you go through the gospel and you talk about the grace of Christ in the cross.

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Our children have to know that when they've sinned against God and broken His law, they have to flee to Christ where there is forgiveness, grace upon grace, and no end to the forgiveness of God, no end to the lack of condemnation that God is a father to them and that He rejoices in forgiving them.

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He rejoices in the cross. It says that God took pleasure in giving Christ for His people.

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But here's, I think, what we might be asking. Gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, gospel, right?

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Christ, Christ, Christ. Violate the law, it's cross. Violate the law, it's cross.

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Then our children have new hearts if they're redeemed to love God and love His law, amen?

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But here's the great failure of Christian parents. We're all in this.

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We can talk to our children all day long about God's standards of justice and how God's law is good and His justice is perfect, but we will fail raising our children to love

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God's law if they see that as parents we're not just. Great example, right?

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Great example. You have two children. They have separate rooms and they've been given gifts from mom and dad.

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In this room, this child has this play thing and this video game console and you have these toys and these clothes and this child over here has their room with their bed and their stuff and their toys and their clothes.

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Oftentimes we hear a noise, right? And the noise reaches around the corners of the house, goes up your heels as a parent, goes all the way up your bones, into your spine and into your brainstem, right?

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And all you want is just all of this noise to quit, amen? That's a famous thing that's been said.

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I just want to quit. Well, when we go into these situations as parents, we have to understand that we're going to reflect either the justice of God in these moments and the law of God or we're not.

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And we oftentimes do when there's a conflict between children over, say, someone's stuff, their property.

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What do we do? Well, generally, if it's a smaller child, we say to the older child, would you just let them have your stuff?

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Don't we do that? I'll end the conflict right now as a mother, right? Two children are fighting, it's the older one's fault, right?

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The younger one, just let them have your stuff. Well, oftentimes what we do in those situations and we don't actually express the law of God, what is foundational to the law of God in the 10 commandments?

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You shall not steal. You shall not steal as the basis of private property in the

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Bible. You should not steal is the very foundation of private property. God says things in his law like what?

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Don't move your neighbor's boundary marker. That is to say, don't be slick and like while your neighbor's sleeping, you go out there and you move the boundary marker over a little bit so you extend your property a little bit, right?

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Somebody's property is their property. God is the sovereign. He's given me my stuff. I rule over this.

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Don't steal from me. I won't steal from you. Well, if we have a conflict in our home, we have to apply the law of God.

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So if two children are fighting over stuff, what's the first thing we should say? God says you should not steal.

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So did either one of you take something that didn't belong to you? So we should say, did you take something that didn't belong to you?

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Okay, so let's talk through that. God wants you to respect this person's property.

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God says you should not steal. So we can do to resolve this in Christian love is we should learn to share with one another and to be gracious with one another with our stuff.

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But we shouldn't condemn the child who was upset because their stuff was taken.

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I would say this. If a child in the home is upset because their stuff was taken, they are only ultimately acting like a believer.

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You should not steal as a standard that should actually exist in our homes as well. Here's another example.

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If we're in our homes and we're telling our children to love the law of God, we ought to be teaching them how to apply it.

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So for example, one of the great blessings of this church, I see the big Brown family right here in the front and this is a beautiful, amazing family.

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What you may not know is that with all these amazing children, the Browns have brought their children to the abortion mill because they want to come.

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My children have come to the abortion mill. Many of your children have gone to the abortion mill and what our children are seeing at the abortion mill is their parents at a very young age, their parents concerned with the law of God, not just in their home, but in society around them.

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The parents at Apology of Church have a deep concern for justice. And so our children are learning that from us in our church families, that God's law matters, not just in my own heart, not just in our little sphere right here in home, not just our sphere at church, but God's law matters everywhere.

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And so what I think it's important for us, what's important for us as parents to do is to know the law of God ourselves and God's just standards so that we're actually applying them consistently in our home.

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I'll give you one more example. We'll end on this question. How many of you guys have ever had a conflict where two children come running into your room and they're both making accusations one against the other?

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Never happens just in my house, right? Some of us with small children are like, that never happens with my children.

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It's coming. The children come running into your room and they're making accusations one against another.

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How do we teach our children to love God's law? Well, what is God's standard in terms of making a judgment when an accusation is being made?

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It's from the Old Testament and the New Testament. In the New Testament, Paul expresses it like this to Timothy, receive no accusation against an elder unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses.

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And that's directly pulled from God's judicial law in the Old Testament. So in order to validate a charge, there have to be two to three independent lines of witness and evidence.

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So for example, if I have a conflict where two children have come running into the room, I have to make sure, doubly sure, that I'm using

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God's judicial standards about how I know whether someone is guilty or not. It can't just be based upon the sweetness of the youngest child, right?

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The young child who says, he did this to me or she did that to me. We need to have just standards.

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Because watch, imagine our older children are growing up in a home where their parents talk about the goodness and perfection of God's law, but we never actually apply it in our own homes.

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When one person makes an accusation against another, we just accept it. We don't give them justice, the victim justice, to actually be able to be heard or to make sure that there's actual evidence that somebody is guilty of something.

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So in terms of how do we actually teach our children to love God's law, I would say first you need to teach them to love

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Jesus. They need to be saved. But they need to see from us, they need to see from us a commitment to God's law, and they should know it.

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For example, how many of our children know that God says you don't receive an accusation against anybody unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses?

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Do you know how important that is in the church? Think about this for a second. One of the great destroyers of the church is gossip.

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One of the great destroyers of the Christian church is gossip. You can have the strongest

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Christian communion and church, theologically sound, crossing every

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T, dotting every I, and that church can turn to dust, can dissolve over very godly people who are committed to a life of gossip and backbiting.

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They're just comfortable with it. They just do it. It's just natural. They've been Christians maybe for 30 or 40 years, and that's just what they've done, and they're just saying, this is just what we're allowed to do in the body of Christ.

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We're allowed to gossip. We're allowed to say things. We're allowed to do this. That might actually happen in the body of Christ, a sound church.

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Watch. If we held to God's standards, His judicial standards,

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His law in terms of receiving accusations, we would be able to shut things down in terms of gossip because there's no witnesses and no evidence.

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If somebody makes a claim about another believer in Christ, I can say with full confidence based upon God's law,

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I can't receive that right now. I don't want to listen to that right now.

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It really has nothing to do with me, but I also can't receive that accusation because if it's just based upon your own testimony with no witnesses and it's just your own opinion,

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I can't receive that. We can actually, because of the law of God, destroy gossip within Christian communities because we actually hold to God's law.

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Imagine raising our children up to know that you're not to receive any accusation.

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Don't even receive it unless it's on the basis of two to three witnesses. There has to be evidence.

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That's one of the ways that we can, I think, fruitfully bless our children with the law of God. Okay. Preston asked, from the days of John the

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Baptist until now, the kingdom of God has suffered violence and the violent take it by force.

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Matthew 11, 12. Marilee also asked about that. And to answer that, I want to say that the problem is in the

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English word violence, right? We see violence there and we think there's some sort of war going on and violence.

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The truth is, it's just unfortunate in terms of the word itself. The Greek word itself doesn't necessarily mean violence like sword and punching and kicking and struggling.

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The word there has to do with fervor, with force, with excitement.

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So I think one of the best ways to express the thought here is from John Gill, King Baptist, one of the best theologians in history.

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This is how he talks about this verse. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, from the time that he began to preach to then and the present time, the kingdom of heaven, the gospel and the ministry of it, first by John, then by Christ and apostles, suffereth violence or comes with force and power upon the souls of men.

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It was attended with the demonstration of the spirit and of power as appeared by its being the means of quickening persons that were dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening the blind, causing the deaf to hear, melting and softening hearts of stone, making of enemies friends to God and Christ, turning men from the power of Satan unto

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God. Here's the point. And the violent take it by force, meaning either publicans and harlots and Gentile sinners who might be thought to be a sort of intruders or rather the same persons as being powerfully wrought upon under the ministry of the gospel, who were under violent apprehensions of wrath and vengeance of their loss and undone state and conditioned by nature were, watch this, violently in love with Christ and eagerly desirous of salvation by him and communion with him.

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Here's the point. When the kingdom of God broke into history, people were trying to take it with all they've got.

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Force. There was this violent movement of people, throngs of people fighting to get to Christ in love with Jesus.

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It's not in terms of warfare, but it just expresses what it looked like for the kingdom of God to break into the world and come in the way that it did.

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Another one. Okay.

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This would be a controversial one. Should we allow, should we withhold or allow our children to take communion before they are professing to be born again and baptized?

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So to this, I just want to point you to a particular text in God's word.

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And if you would go to first Corinthians, uh, first Corinthians chapter 11.

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Now there is dispute on this particular point. Um, we have, uh, faithful, godly brothers and sisters in Christ who are

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Presbyterian that even when then the Presbyterian communion, they have disagreements with one another related to communion.

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There are those who practice Pato communion, uh, within Presbyterian, uh, churches that disagree with one another.

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So there are Presbyterians who baptize their children who say that you still shouldn't allow them to take communion, uh, until a bit older, until there's a profession of faith or something in terms of able to process what's taking place.

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And there are those who I think are being rather consistent Pato communion that say, no, they're baptized. They have a right to the table.

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Um, but we would say, I think based upon first Corinthians chapter 11, in terms of what we see in our new

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Testament about communion, Paul specifically addresses how we're supposed to take the body and blood of the

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Lord. In verse 23, he says, for I received from the Lord, what I also delivered to you. See that there it is again that the

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Lord Jesus in the night of when he was betrayed, took bread. And when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, this is my body, which is for you do this in remembrance of me in the same way.

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Also, he took the cup after supper saying, this cup is a new covenant in my blood.

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Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me for as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the

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Lord's death until he comes. Verse 27, whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the

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Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the

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Lord. Let a person examine himself then. And so eat of the bread and drink of the cup for anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself.

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That is why many of you are weak and ill and some have died. So the text that I would land on for that question would be first Corinthians chapter 11.

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The apostle Paul makes it clear that people who come to the table, the body and blood of the Lord are to come to the table in a discerning way.

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And of course, coming to the table would mean that you are also a believer. So coming to the table is for those who know

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Jesus, who trust in Christ, who belong to Christ and can be discerning of what's actually taking place.

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And so when I would approach this text, I would say that counts for when we have our

01:00:00

Sunday meal together and we take the body and blood of the Lord. That's why I always stress as a pastor, if you're not in Christ, please don't come to this table right now.

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It's because of first Corinthians chapter 11. This is a table for believers, but I also as a pastor know that it's all of our duty to make sure that we spend time with God first and contemplate where we're at with Christ, forgiveness, confession before we come to the table.

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So the answer to that is in first Corinthians chapter 11. But I will say this, one of the fantastic benefits of this, what we're doing here with children in service is our children are actually part of this whole experience of worship.

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They're watching mom and dad, hands in the air, worshiping God. They're hearing the word of God proclaimed faithfully.

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So if our children are here, and they may even say, I don't believe in Jesus. Every time we go to that table and we take the body and blood of the

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Lord Jesus, it's an opportunity for us to testify to them about the salvation that we can have in Christ.

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It's also a great opportunity with really young children. Every time we come to this table for us to be able to lovingly and graciously preach the gospel to them, every time.

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It's an every Sunday opportunity for the gospel, every Sunday. I'll do this as a last one.

01:01:29

Oh, I don't know. These are good. David, you asked some good questions. Okay. This is probably a pressing one on all of us.

01:01:36

David asked, in light of what we've been learning about the kingdom of God, what emphasis should we as individual

01:01:43

Christians, wait, this one, sorry.

01:01:49

We have heard amazing truth about God's concern for and redemption of the physical world culminating in a new earth.

01:01:56

What emphasis should individual Christians be putting on longing for heaven? That's a good question, right?

01:02:03

Because, hey, can we just admit this? Isn't it a complete reshaping of your thinking?

01:02:08

When you think about all your life, you're thinking about the big, the big message is escape, right?

01:02:14

Get to heaven one day. And then you learn from the scriptures. No, God is actually concerned.

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He told us to be concerned about it too, for God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven, right?

01:02:26

The Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done where? On earth as it is in heaven.

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The meek shall inherit the earth. He's reconciling all things to himself in heaven and on earth.

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So it changes perspective, doesn't it? Does it change your perspective to be thinking now that, oh,

01:02:42

I need to be invested here and to preach the gospel and to labor hard and leave a legacy. So we often think, okay, but then what's that say about heaven one day?

01:02:51

Well, I'm going to say that I think we should have the same kind of difficulty that the apostle Paul had. And to show you that with the word of God, go to Philippians.

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And I think you can see how Paul managed that conflict himself, because he's the one that wrote first Corinthians 15.

01:03:09

He's the one that said that Christ is putting all things into subjection to himself. He's the one that said that God was reconciling everything to himself in heaven and on earth.

01:03:21

And this is how the apostle Paul dealt with the conflict. And David, I'm sure you know this, but this is what I would emphasize.

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In Philippians chapter one, the apostle Paul says in verse 18, yes, and I will rejoice for I know that through your prayers and the help of the spirit of Jesus Christ, this will turn out for my deliverance for as it is in my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with all full courage now, as always,

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Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death for to me to live as Christ and to die as game.

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If I am to live in the flesh, that is, that means fruitful labor for me, yet which

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I shall choose, I cannot tell. I'm hard pressed between the two. My desire is to depart and be with Christ for that is far better, but to remain on the flesh is more necessary on your account.

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So the apostle Paul has a difficult conflict within him.

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He knows that Christ is ruler of the world, that he is reconciling the world to himself. He knows that his lifelong ministry here is beneficial for the church and the world, but he so wants to go be with Jesus, which is far better.

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To depart from this life, to go be with Christ, to leave a world that is still under the fall and curse of sin where there's death, disease, brokenness, sinfulness, it's far better.

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By the way, the word there is one of my favorite parts of scripture. When he says to depart and be with Christ, the

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Greek word behind that is a naval term, and it refers to weighing the anchor.

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So Paul refers to there, and to depart be with Christ, is he wants to weigh the anchor and sail away to be with Jesus.

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That's the wording he uses there. So as a Christian, the only way I can answer that, David, is to say this.

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I think that we as Christians, knowing that the kingdom of God is in the world, and Jesus having victory over the world,

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I think we have to live with this tension. And the tension is, I actually want to be here, to live a life that is glorifying to God, to grow in grace, and to proclaim his excellencies in the world, but I also,

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I can't wait to be with him. I can't be, I can't wait to be in his presence, and for all this, in some sense, to be behind me, of course, before the final resurrection.

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I think that tension is just something we have to live with as believers. So I'll just give you a little intimate moment here of my own prayer life, and I'm not uber special here, or super spiritual in this.

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I just want to tell you in terms of how I try to manage this conflict within myself. I pray often that God would spare me, my family, and this church from calamity, that he would spare us, that he would give us,

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I pray often, that God would give us all health and long life, for the purpose of making his name famous, for the purpose of glorifying

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God and expanding the kingdom. I actually do pray that God preserves this church, and my family, and myself, that he preserves us.

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And this is what I say to God. I say this all the time. I honestly, it's a very intimate moment for me. I'm telling you what

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I pray about constantly. I pray that God preserves our health and our lives, and I say this,

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I say, not for our sake, God, but for your name's sake, to make you famous in the world, please bless this church,

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I say, with long life and prosperity and protection and shielding, so that we can, as a church, glorify

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Christ in the world. But on the other side of that, here's what I want to say. This world's awful.

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It's awful. It's a terrible place sometimes, and it hurts really bad sometimes.

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And there's a whole other part of me that says this, I'm ready to go right now. I'm ready for you to take me home now, because I have peace with you,

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God, and I just want to be with you. And I don't really know that there's a way for us to resolve that tension.

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Paul clearly had no real resolution, except to say this, I'm hard -pressed between two things, fruitful labor for you, and then also,

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I just want to sail away to be with Jesus. I think we have to say is this, God calls us to be faithful where we're at.

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So if you're alive now, if you're alive, God calls you with the life that he's given to you and I, to be faithful to him, to glorify him with your life, and I think

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God calls us to leave a legacy that looks like we were actually trying to expand his rule into the world.

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It ought to look like that, not a life wasted, a life well lived in God.

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Remember the final word here I'll say is this, Matthew 25. It's actually pretty challenging if you really consider it.

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Jesus gives us a glimpse of the last day, and on that last day, he says people come to him and he says, you fed me, you gave me something to drink, you visited me in prison, and the

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Christians who know God were like, when? They don't even know what's happening, right? They're like, when did we do that?

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He says, when you did it for the least of these, you did it unto me, and he says to those that he'll tell to depart from him on the last day, he says, you didn't feed me, you gave me nothing to drink, you didn't visit me in prison.

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So ultimately, in the last day, there is this moment where God is going to shout to the world that these are his people who belong to him, that are actually serving him and loving him and serving others in the world, and there'll be another lot of people where God actually says, depart from me.

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There was nothing. Faithfulness in this life does count on the last day, not for justification, not for salvation, but I think in terms of God's own vindication of who his people actually are, and for reward or lack of reward.

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Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for the time we had today. I do pray that it was a blessing in some way to your people.

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I pray that, Lord, you grow us as a church, and Lord, as I think about the question that came about God's law,

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I do pray, God, that you would allow us to be faithful to you with your law,

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Lord, with our families, Lord, at our work, in our business, in our culture, and I do pray,

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Lord, that the children of this church see mothers and fathers who love your law and uphold it, that it would bless our families and our church and our nation, that you use us to that end.