WWUTT 1023 Will You Restore the Kingdom to Israel?

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Before Jesus ascended into heaven, the disciples asked him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

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They wanted Israel to be an empire again, but Jesus had something way bigger in mind when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's word that we may be filled with the knowledge of his will.

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For questions or comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come again to our study in the book of Acts, which we just started this week, examining that opening section in Acts 1 -11.

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I come back again to that today. In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up after he had given commands through the

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Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. He presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God.

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And while staying with them, he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the

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Father, which he said, you heard from me, for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the

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Holy Spirit, not many days from now. So when they had come together, they asked him,

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Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel? He said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the

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Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. And when he had said these things, as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

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Now you have to admit, watching this, being there on the Mount of Olives and seeing this take place, that would have been pretty cool.

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Indeed, we read in the Gospel of John back in chapter 20, verse 29,

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Jesus said to his disciples, to Thomas who doubted, he said, if you believed because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

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He also rebuked those who had eyes to see and yet they didn't believe. We read in Romans 11, eight,

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God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that would not see and ears that would not hear.

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So by seeing, it doesn't necessarily produce in us the saving faith that we must have.

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That is the work of the Holy Spirit, whether we had been there and seen it or whether we are in the day that we are in and we can read it from the scriptures themselves, which even the

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Apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1, we have the word of God, the prophetic word more fully confirmed.

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So we even have something better than the apostles had because we have the entire testimony that has been written down and compiled for us, 66 books in the scriptures.

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From Genesis to Revelation, we can look at the whole plan of redemption from God from beginning to end.

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That's pretty incredible that we live in the day and age in which we have access to something like this.

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But you still have to admit to be there on the Mount of Olives, you wanna see that, right? You want to be there to see this one who was crucified, he's alive again.

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And now he just lifts up from our presence into the air and he's gone. That still would have been pretty incredible to see.

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And the naturally minded man can't understand these things. It's why Immanuel Kant said, we can't trust the

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Bible because it's full of miracles. Miracles are impossible. So therefore you can't trust the scriptures, it's full of impossible things.

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Well, yeah, to the naturally minded man, yeah, that's exactly the way he is gonna regard the

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Bible because he doesn't have the spirit of God and therefore can't discern spiritual things.

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But we who have the Holy Spirit are privileged to understand the mind of God. And this is no boasting in ourselves.

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It is a privilege that has been given to us by God, by his grace, that we might know his will according to the scriptures because we have been given his spirit and we have his spirit because he has chosen us for salvation.

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We heard the gospel and believed it because the Holy Spirit of God had regenerated our hearts to believe.

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So we understand this because the Holy Spirit illuminates it to us. But nevertheless, it's important for us to realize that what we're reading here in Acts, what we've just read here in Acts chapter one, verses one through 11, as I started talking about yesterday, opening up the program, we're reading something that's historical fact.

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These things actually happened. This isn't some mythy sort of religion that we've just clung onto.

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This stuff was actually seen by eyewitnesses and have shared with us what they saw and heard.

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John begins his first epistle this way. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life, the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testified to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us.

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That which we have seen and heard, we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us.

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And indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son, Jesus Christ. And we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete.

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We're reading things that actually happened. This is historical fact. The fact that Jesus died on a cross, that he was buried in a tomb and that he rose again from the grave.

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These are historical facts. And you can be more certain of that truth than you can be certain that the sun is gonna rise tomorrow.

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We have these things that have already been happened, that have already happened. Eyewitness accounts have given testament to them.

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They are true. And we can know that because Jesus is the one who rose from the dead, he is the one who has power over death itself, the wages of sins.

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And so by faith in Jesus, he forgives us our sin and gives us eternal life.

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And we likewise will receive a resurrection like his on that day when we join with him in glory.

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So let us rejoice in this truth that has been given to us. The gospel, once again, is not some religious myth.

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We believe in facts. We believe in truth. And we believe in truth that saves.

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When we get to verse six, Jesus is together with the disciples, the apostles, they're on the

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Mount of Olives. And we know that's where they are because when we get to verse 12, then they returned to Jerusalem from the

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Mount called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey away. So they were up on the

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Mount of Olives when Jesus had lifted out of their sight and ascended into heaven. So that's where they are.

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They've come together there. They ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

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And he said to them, it is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you. So again, the Holy Spirit is not with them yet. That's gonna be coming up in just a couple of days as they will gather in the upper room.

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And we'll read that next week when we come back to chapter one. And the gift of the Holy Spirit is given to them coming in like a rushing wind and settling on them in the appearance of tongues of fire.

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And then they go into Jerusalem, the day of Pentecost, and they're preaching in tongues to the people that are there.

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A beautiful, glorious event, which quite frankly, the anniversary of which we don't give a whole lot of importance to.

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We have a lot of importance to Easter and with good reason, but the giving of the Holy Spirit was a continued work of Christ, even after his resurrection, that has been a blessing upon all those who follow him.

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And so you would think we would place quite an importance on that day of Pentecost as well, but that's just not as calendar worthy a date for us, it seems like.

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Anyway, so when the disciples ask him, Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?

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You can still see in their question the same expectation they had before Jesus was crucified.

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And that was this idea that Jesus was going to be that Messiah King who was gonna ascend to the throne of David and with military might, free

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Israel from the tyranny of the Romans, the Roman empire at that time, and restore them to the empire that they were under David and Solomon.

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That's what it was that the disciples were expecting. All of Jerusalem was expecting that.

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The Jews were expecting a Messiah who was going to come, who was going to literally sit on the throne of David and literally make

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Israel a world power once again. That's what they expected to have happen. They don't yet discern or understand some of those deeper things of the expansion of the kingdom of God, because the

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Holy Spirit has not taught it to them yet. Indeed, their minds were open to understand the scriptures as we read in Luke 24, they came to understand how all the law and the prophets pointed to Christ, but they did not yet understand how the spreading of the gospel was going to mean the expansion of the kingdom.

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That wasn't going to be something that they would learn until they received the Holy Spirit.

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So here they're asking Jesus, will you at this time make Israel a superpower again?

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And Jesus said to them, it's not for you to know times or seasons that the father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the

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Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all

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Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth. So here's essentially the way that Jesus answered their question.

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Not that we're going to restore the kingdom to Israel, but rather we're going to expand the kingdom of Israel and here's how it's going to be done.

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You're going to have power from the Holy Spirit. You're going to have this power, because again, the disciples were expecting is

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Jesus going to ascend to the throne now in Jerusalem and by his power, Israel is going to be a power again?

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And he's saying, no, you're going to receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses, witnesses to the kingdom, which he had just been teaching them about, verse three, speaking about the kingdom of God.

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So he says, you will be my witnesses to the kingdom of heaven in Jerusalem. You're going to spread this all throughout

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Jerusalem. Then you're going to go Judea and Samaria, the outlying regions. Judea is where Jerusalem was.

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Samaria was that land to the north, the area of Israel just to the north that was occupied by Samaritans that Jews did not like, which you're even going to go to the people that the

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Jews don't like and you're going to share the gospel there. And then you're going to go to the end of the earth. It's even going to be the

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Gentiles. The kingdom of God is going to be made up of Jews and Gentiles.

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This is what Jesus was sharing with his disciples. This was going to be the expansion of the kingdom of Israel.

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My friends, there has never been two people of God. There wasn't before and there isn't now.

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There's not Jews and Christians. There's not God's plan for the Jewish people and his plan for the church.

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There has only ever been the saved. The people of God are those who have been saved by grace through faith.

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Old Testament or New Testament. We read in Galatians 3, 7, know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham.

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And toward the end of that same chapter, in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.

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Verse 28, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free.

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There is no male and female for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

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And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise.

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It's in Romans chapter nine, where Paul makes this point, starting in verse six, not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel.

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And not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but through Isaac shall your offspring be named.

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This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.

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And who is the promise? The promised one is Jesus Christ. And everyone who is in Christ is therefore the people of God.

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We are Israel. Matthew Henry, when you go through his commentary, he uses the terms

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Israel and church interchangeably. Israel is the church, the church is

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Israel. He'll even use that term church in the Old Testament. And I don't think he is out of place in doing so.

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The church is not the replacement of Israel. The church is the expansion of Israel, always has been.

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No group of people has ever been replaced. Again, it is only those who are in faith who are truly the children of God.

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In Romans chapter three, Paul points out that there is no distinction. There's no distinction between Jews and Gentiles.

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And he brings all people, whether Jew or Gentile, into condemnation, pointing out how all have fallen before God.

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That's what he spends Romans 1, 18 through Romans 3, 20 doing. And then we get to Romans 3, 22, where he says, for there is no distinction.

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For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All have sinned, all have fallen short of God's glory,

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Jew or Gentile. That's the context. That's the point that he's made there in Romans 3, 22 and 23.

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And then in verse 24, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received, how? By faith.

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Again, no distinction. You become part of the children of God by faith in Christ.

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In Ephesians 2, I just finished up preaching on this section last week, as a matter of fact.

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Ephesians 2, starting in verse 11, therefore remember that at one time, you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

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All of the covenants, the patriarchs, the oracles of God, they had all been given through the

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Jews. That is how God had revealed his will to people, to man.

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It was only through those who were the descendants of Abraham. So therefore the Gentiles were far off.

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And that's what we have coming up next in verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

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For he himself is our peace who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

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There's no distinction anymore. There's no distinction between Jew and Gentile. That wall's been broken down.

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We are one in Christ. Verse 18, through him we both, we both, through him we both have access in one spirit to the father.

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So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the

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Lord. In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit.

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One house, there's not the house and lineage of David and then the house and lineage of the Gentiles who was descended from the house and lineage of David.

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Jesus, he is the fulfillment of all of those covenant promises, which have now been extended to us who are in Christ Jesus.

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We were once far off from those covenant promises. We're now recipients of those covenant promises in Christ, signed, sealed and delivered in his blood.

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And this is all on a foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, meaning that he's the stone by which all the other stones are set.

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The work that the apostles were doing was going to be the foundation of this building up of this spiritual house, the expansion of this kingdom, which is the kingdom of Israel, the kingdom people of God.

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That's us, Jews or Gentiles, we're all part of Israel. As the apostle

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Paul says in Philippians 3, 3, we are the circumcision who worship by the spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

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No one receives any special privilege because they're a Jew. No one receives any special privilege because they're a

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Gentile. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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Amen, praise God, glory, hallelujah. And this work that Jesus was telling the apostles to go and do by the spreading of the gospel, this is that commission that we're reading here in Acts 1 .8.

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You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth.

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They were gonna be witnesses of Christ to the message of the kingdom of God, which

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Jesus came preaching. That's the way Matthew and Mark start their gospels with Jesus preaching, the time has come, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent and believe the gospel.

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And now the apostles are gonna go out saying the very same thing. And we are part of that kingdom, kingdom of Israel, kingdom of God, when we repent and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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And then verse nine, when he had said these things as they were looking on, he was lifted up and a cloud took him out of their sight.

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And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes and said, men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven?

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This Jesus who was taken up from you into heaven will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.

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And indeed right now, as the disciples were standing there and saw him ascend, he has seated, he has been seated at the right hand of the throne of God where he reigns on high.

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Christ is there in heaven now, reigning over all creation. And we as his witnesses are working to expand the kingdom of God as he's commissioned us to do by going out with the gospel.

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As Paul says in 2 Timothy 2 .10, for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

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My friends, the kingdom of God is already bigger and greater than Old Testament Israel ever was.

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We've had hundreds of millions, if not billions that have been added to the kingdom of God over the 2000 year history of the church and more are being added every day.

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As people hear the gospel and come to believe it and are saved, they are now an added citizen to the kingdom of God, which will continue to be added to until the day that Christ returns, a day that the father has fixed by his own authority.

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So until that day comes, may we continue to be faithful to this commission, reaching out with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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We are all looking forward to that day that we'll be gathered together in glory with our savior in his eternal kingdom, where there will be no more tears, no more suffering or pain, no more evil.

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All the former things will have passed away and we will be with him forever in glory.

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Amen. Let us conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you that you considered our need.

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Though we were enemies against you, against the kingdom of God, yet you sent your son to die for our sins so that all who believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

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And then once enemies of the kingdom, we've now been made fellow heirs through Christ Jesus.

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What wonderful grace and blessings you have bestowed upon us. So may we be at peace in our hearts, knowing that since our sins are forgiven and the judgment of God is not against us, therefore, what can man do to us?

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Our expectation, our desire is that eternal kingdom. And so may we do all things in expectation of that day to your glory and honor.

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In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. You've been listening to When We Understand The Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes.

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Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, Gabe will be going through a New Testament study. Then on Thursday, we look at an

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Old Testament book. On Friday, we take questions from the listeners and viewers. Tomorrow, we'll pick up on an