Adult Sunday School - Going Public Part 5 (Chapter 5)

All right, good morning, beloved. Thank you, faithful saints, for being here this morning to delve into God's Word, to be edified in this teaching.

Let's approach Him in prayer this morning. Father, we thank you that your mercies are new every morning unto us, thy people who are called by thy name.

We pray, Lord, that you would help us in our weakness, in the weakness of our flesh, to lay aside all earthly care, and Lord, to intently receive the instruction of your

Word to make us strong even unto salvation. We ask you, Lord, that you would be glorified in our midst, in our time together, as we examine this issue before us.

And Father, may it edify our souls and our spirits that we in the inner man may be lifted up, empowered, and sent out to a dying world that needs this kingdom message, that Jesus reigns, and that He lives, and that by means of His death, birth, and resurrection, all men who repent and trust in Jesus can have eternal life.

And we pray, Father, that you would have your way in us this morning and forevermore in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, beloved.

Well, let's examine today's chapter, chapter 5, so page 81, and to kind of recap a little bit of where we've been so far.

So, what are we essentially trying to establish here in studying this book?

What are we establishing? That's right.

Yeah, that's pretty concise, and I like that, and it's essentially the right answer, but I want to simplify a little more.

Basically, what we're studying and what we're trying to get at, the purpose, the point of this, is establishing what is a

Christian. It's really the basic question. What is a Christian, and how does baptism, membership relate to the

Christian life and experience, right? Because ultimately, all these things are pretty meaningless if you're not a

Christian. What good is baptism if you're not a Christian? It's just getting wet.

What good is being a member of a church if you're not a Christian? It's useless. You know, there are so many people who are church members, who are baptized, and who are going to hell.

So, what we really want to get at is what is a Christian, and then what flows from that, right?

Sometimes in this argument, we get so fixated on the nuances of, okay, baptism means this, and church membership this, and it becomes almost like very stale, legalistic, and it's almost robotic, but what we're talking about is we're talking about living people, living organisms, and the church in itself is kind of like a living organism, and so we're not talking about these static, weird laws and regulations.

More so, we're talking about what is the essence of a Christian, and I would propose to you that the essence of a

Christian and what makes a Christian a Christian is that they have repented of sin, trusted in Jesus, and that Jesus now lives and reigns in them, and as a result of that, what flows, an outpouring, an outflow of that decision to know and follow

Jesus, is these other things such as baptism and membership.

That flows from a heart that's been regenerated. It flows from a person who has received the rulership of Jesus.

Oftentimes, we don't use certain biblical terms in relation to conversion, in relation to church membership, and I want to, hopefully through this chapter, we're going to undo some of that and reintroduce some biblical terminology in relation to regeneration.

We often talk as Christians and evangelicalism that you have to accept

Jesus as what? As Lord and Savior. Is there anything wrong with that statement?

No, that's a perfectly great statement. I would always, I'm always very intentional in saying you must receive instead of accept, okay, because evangelicals, people who are synergists will typically use language like, you must accept

Jesus. A monergist, you know, the position of a Calvinist would be, well, you receive

Jesus as Lord because the difference is that in one, you're making

Him Lord, and the other one, He is Lord, and so we, and this is Scripture says in Colossians 2 .6,

now that you have received Christ the Lord, now go on walking in Him, being rooted in Him, and establishing the faith, okay?

So, we receive Christ the Lord. We don't make Christ the Lord. Amen? So, what we want to kind of unravel today though, so we use that terminology of Lord and Savior.

Those are great terms, but what's implicit behind the term Lord is what?

What's implicit behind that term? What is a Lord in the biblical sense? Yes?

Allegiance. Those are great words. I like it. What else is implied in those terminologies of Lord?

Submission, absolutely. Think of, think of a feudal system.

What is a Lord? A master, an owner, a ruler.

This is what Lord means in the Old and New Testament sense. Someone who has authority over you.

We still use this term today. We use the term land what? Lord.

If you've got a landlord, then you've got someone over you, and they own something that you don't, and you are in a sense subservient to them because at the end of the month, or at the beginning of the month, who is that check going to?

Is it coming to you, or is it going to them? It's going to them, right? So, you owe them money, therefore you are in the, you are in a subservient role in that relationship.

Jesus is Lord, which means He's ruler, He's master, He is the owner, okay?

And all those things are kingdom terms because in a kingdom, there's one who is supreme.

And this supreme one in this kingdom, this kingdom of God that we speak of is the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so, with that kingdom understanding, that kingdom terminology in mind, let's see what the implication is for the believer, for the

Christian. So, in chapter 5, we're examining how, or what in rather what is the passport of the kingdom.

The beginning question in this chapter is, is whom do you speak for? Oftentimes, if you have a role in a company or in a church, you'll say, hey, well, these views are from this or political party, for instance.

These are the views of the Democratic Party. This is the views of the Republican Party. This is the views of our church. And then sometimes we'll say, well, this is the view of the party or the church, but here's what

I think. And then we say, I'm not speaking for them, but we use those phrases all the time.

And the reason why that's important is because in a sense, every single person is a representative of an entity that's bigger than themselves.

Sometimes it's a family, right? So, one of the things that comes up here is, son, you're a

Peterson, which implies what? He represents his family.

He bears their last name. And so their behavior is a reflection of the family, of the name, right?

And that's why, you know, in the family, we say, son, you're a Peterson, you're a Garcia. You've got to represent the family well.

You've got to represent where you're coming from. In the same way, we do that with our companies that we work.

We do that with the political parties that we line with. We do it in every facet of life. We always try to identify with a particular group or entity that's bigger than ourselves.

And we speak on behalf of it. Okay. Now, what do you have to do in order to speak for Google?

In order to speak for Google? Yeah. Yeah. Or be hired by it, by the

CEO and be their spokesperson. Can you just go up in front of a news camera and say, I represent

Google? What would be the problem with that? Because you're phony, you're fake.

You're not really representing them because you haven't gone through the process in order to represent this company, right?

There's a process for Christians to be, or, you know, for a person to represent

Christ and his kingdom. Okay. So we want to get this in mind. There's a process at work here.

It's not just, I can say, hey, I speak for Jesus Christ, or I speak for this person, or I speak for that person.

There is a process in place in order to speak for the family. You usually have to be part of the family and you have to then, or be hired by the family, for instance, a spokesperson or a lawyer.

If a family is involved in a legal battle, they'll often hire their lawyer to be the representatives before the media.

And so again, there is a process in place to be a true representative.

And in this context, what we're going to be talking about is how baptism, obviously, again, we're presupposing genuine conversion, faith in Jesus Christ, repentance from sin, you know, confession of Christ as Lord, ruler, owner.

And then baptism is kind of the seal. It's kind of our badge that we show the world that says,

I'm a representative of Christ. Okay. And again, you know, we think of, you know, there's always a process.

And there's also a lot of fakes and phonies. I always think one of my favorite movies is

Dumb and Dumber. Okay. The original, Dumb and Dumber. And one of my favorite scenes is very early in the movie when

Jim Carrey is running to the airport to get the luggage to the woman. And then the airport employee tries to stop and then he pulls out.

He's like, it's okay. I'm a limo driver. He pulls a badge almost to say, hey, look, it's okay.

You know, as if he's a cop or something like, oh, I've got the authority. I've got the right to do this. And he runs, he falls off the tarmac.

You know, so a lot of people do that. They think because, hey,

I grew up in the church. Hey, I was catechized. Hey, I was baptized. Hey, I went through confirmation.

Hey, I've got all these things. And therefore I can speak on behalf of.

But there is a genuine mark or passport for the believer.

So we're going to delve into this to, again, some degree here.

So one of the questions brought up in page 82 in the middle, in the middle paragraph there.

If baptism is the new covenant initiating oath sign, which we established in the previous chapter, who has the authority to transact this oath?

That is, who is authorized to administer baptism and by what authority?

Does anyone know what our confession says on that? What does our confession say in regard to this issue?

I don't think you're going to find it in the chapter. So you kind of have to pull out your 1689

Confession, Second Lenten Baptist Confession. And let's look at, let me one second.

I think it's in Baptism of the Lord's Supper, chapter 28, paragraph 2.

It says, these holy appointments, referring to Baptism of the Lord's Supper, are to be administered by those who are qualified and thereunto called according to the commission of Christ.

And so, in other words, who has the authority to baptize or to administer the

Lord's Supper? And this, there's a couple layers here. But the first, obviously, is the institution of the church.

Okay? These are church ordinances, not individual ordinances. Okay? And what happens way too often in evangelicalism is that we individualize everything.

Everything is so individualized and personalized. You know, and again, this is the culture of modern evangelicalism.

I think I said this last week or a week before, you know, the pastors are very common. You go to a nice big mega church, what do they make you do at the end of service?

Everybody, just close your eyes. It's just you and Jesus now, you know? And they individualize everything.

So, and then people at the end of service, and I know this because I was part of several big churches, what do they do?

Might chat for five minutes at the coffee bar and then go their separate ways. And there's no interaction.

There's no relationships. There's not a lot of life happening outside of the four walls of the church.

And those are things that even, you know, our church may struggle with to some degree, but it's one of the things that we try to avert through our home groups, through all the activities that we provide here at the church that, you know, we're a church that wants to be involved in day -to -day life.

But the appointments that are administered, Lord's Supper and baptism, these are church ordinances, and they are particularly performed by those who are qualified, and therefore, and they're unto called.

So, they have a gospel call, a ministry call, according to the commission of Christ, which is the Great Commission, Matthew 28, 19, and other

Scriptures that refer to the stewardship of God's graces through the elders.

And 1 Peter chapter 3 comes to mind, Hebrews chapter 13, so many verses that speaks about the elders administering such mysteries.

Any thoughts or questions on that? Okay. And so, the question that I guess the author of this book is trying to get at is, does baptism have an ecclesiastical shape?

Which another way of framing that question is, is baptism purely individual or is it collective?

Right? In the political world, collectivism scares me.

I don't like collectivism in the political world or in the secular world.

I think collectivism is dangerous, and it's dangerous for a couple of reasons. And we see that danger early in human history after the fall.

What was one of the first things in Scripture, stories, in which we see humankind unite, collectivize, but against the true

God? Tower of Babel. So, early on after the rebellion of Adam and Eve, you have humankind collectivizing, coming together.

And what did they come together for? They want to build an edifice in defiance to the one true God, right?

Which is, again, shows you early on why collectivism is evil in regard to the world.

Because when the world, when sinful, unregenerate persons collectivize, come together, it's always, always for the purpose of defying

God. Okay? So, collectivism in all sorts, I think, is bad in the world, which is why

I think communism is a very dangerous ideology because it supposes a utopia that cannot exist because of the human condition.

Okay? And so, what inevitably comes behind such utopic ideologies, such as communism, is force.

Okay? Because in order to take something, you know, if someone doesn't want to give up land, for instance, as we saw within the communist revolution in China, and the

Great Purge, and also the, what was it called? The great, what was the thing that they did there?

The Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution under Mao, where farmers who had land didn't want to give up their land, so what did they do?

They used force of government to come and take it from them and then kill them.

But before killing them, look at these. These people are trying to take away land from you and all these things, and they mocked them, and they flogged them, and they ultimately killed many of them, and this is why it was a huge genocide.

So, collectivism always leads to death, always leads to destruction, and defiance is for God, except in the church.

Except in the church. Collectivism works in God's economy because our ruler isn't the pastor.

Our ruler isn't the denomination. Our ruler is Christ, and Christ has given us his precept.

He's given us his law. He's given us what is good and what is right, and when we follow that, it works, right?

And so a spiritual collectivism under the manner of Christ and under his kingdom is the only collectivism that works, and baptism is an individual work that then,

I guess for lack of a better term, baptizes us into the collective, okay? So you have the individual doing a personal act.

That personal act doesn't just stay personal. It's not just between him and God anymore. Now he's being baptized, not just into Christ, but into Christ's community.

Does that make sense? Say again? Yes, absolutely, absolutely, absolutely, and so, you know, at this point a lot of pastors would say,

I don't mean to get political, but I mean to get political, right? You know, I think the church is too shy on certain things.

I think we need to declaratively say what is good and what is right and from God's Word, and every sign and form of collectivism done by sinful man throughout the

Bible and throughout human history always leads to calamity. The only exception is Christ's church. That's the only exception, and so there are a lot of communists who say, well, collectivism works.

Just look at the New Testament, and what they always point is to Jesus. Isn't it interesting? Well, Jesus, you know, was a communist.

Oh, look at the New Testament church. They were communists. They have all things in common. That's what we want to do. Yes, that'd be great if you were saved.

That'd be great if you knew Jesus, but you don't know Jesus. You're just using Jesus as a political prostitute, and that's the error, and that's the sin of the collectivist, and so again, collectivism in the world won't work, will never work, always leads to death.

Collectivism in the church is Christ's command. Christ commands us to come together as one. We're one body, though many members,

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12, many members, diverse, yet one in Christ, and so very important distinctions to be understood and made.

So we would contend, not just through the literature here, but also just by means of common sense and what

God's Word teaches us as a whole, that baptism is a mark of the individual coming into the covenant community, okay?

So it's not, again, it's not just the individual having an individual private relationship with Jesus. Now it's a public act.

It's a public affair marked, or you know, it's an oath before many witnesses, and that oath brings you into a community, similarly even to marriage again, right?

So the two become one. You have the many, the two, the plural, becoming one, the unity, understand?

And that's through an oath, a public oath, before witnesses. Baptism serves as that same symbol.

It is a public oath before many witnesses, and so that's the importance here that we want to point to.

Any thoughts or questions so far? So in that sense, baptism almost acts like a passport.

What does a passport do in function? What does it do? Just one word.

Access. Access is good. I'm looking for one that starts with a letter I. It identifies.

It identifies you, just like an ID does, right? But an ID isn't comprehensive enough because you can have an

ID. In the state of California, you can be an illegal immigrant and have a California issued state

ID. Did you know that? And so, yeah, they hand out these things like candy now.

But a passport says a little bit, has a little bit more information. Well, a passport identifies you as a what?

As a citizen with a national identity, and it gives you access to other parts of the world, and it oftentimes can be a protection as well.

You know, say, hey, I'm an American citizen, and one of the good things about being an American is that typically, not in all cases, the

US government, if you get in trouble abroad, the US government does work pretty hard in getting you back, and they will go to a far extent, more so than other countries, to bring its citizens back.

And so it identifies you, and it doesn't just identify you personally. It identifies you collectively with the

American identity or the identity of whatever, you know, passport nation that you originate from, okay?

It identifies you as a national, okay? Baptism identifies us as kingdom nationals, okay?

As kingdom citizens, as kingdom ambassadors, okay?

Which is why, you know, oftentimes, if you've ever traveled abroad and asked, are you American?

And then you get in a conversation with a foreign and say, what do you think about Americans? And then you say, well, I can speak for Americans.

We're not all like that, right? If they have a negative view, for instance. And so he said, well,

I can speak for most Americans. We're not all like that, right? So again, even just by virtue of you having a passport, just by virtue of you being an

American or of whatever nationality you originate from, you, in a sense, represent the collective.

You are an individual representing the collective. And so, again, a baptism is essentially a passport.

Think of it in our local church politic, okay? Every Sunday when we take the

Lord's table, what are the three things that we require and ask? That your faith be in the

Lord Jesus, and that you be what? Baptized by full immersion, and that you be a member of a church in good standing, right?

That way, we can identify that, hey, if you're partaking and we don't really know you, we can have some degree of confidence, not total confidence, but some degree of confidence that you are partaking in a way worthy of the table, right, which is the call that Paul gives the church in 1

Corinthians 11. And so we can have some degree of confidence that the table is being honored in our midst, where most churches don't even have any requirements.

And the danger of that, again, is dishonoring the Lord because we truly believe this is the

Lord's body, this is the Lord's blood, not in the Eucharist sense.

Obviously, we went through a whole series of Roman Catholicism. You know, we do not believe in transubstantiation.

However, we do believe in the true spiritual presence of Christ in the blood, in the emblems of the bread and the wine.

And so we want to treat that with a severity and a degree of honor, respect, and dignity that it deserves being the body of our

Lord, spiritually speaking. And so we want to have some degree of confidence, and this is how we can identify such ones with a clear conscience.

Does that make sense? And so sometimes we've had times in this church where people come into the church and they say,

I love the preaching, I love the church, but I hate that you guys do this. And it's always a battle because, again, they've been hardwired within evangelicalism today to everything being so individualized, everything being so personal.

And how dare you take my personal right to partake in this table? But again, it's a collective thing.

Baptism, Lord's Supper, individuals are partaking, but it's onto a collective, it's onto a greater group.

Do you understand? And so because what are we being baptized into? The body of Christ.

What are we partaking of in the Lord's Supper? The body of Christ. In a sense, again, there's a lot of symbolism here.

Jesus says, they symbolize my body, but what else symbolizes His body? The New Testament church.

We are a symbol of Christ's body. And so all these things are connected in such a unique way that we want to really make sure that we have a proper understanding and that we're honoring correctly the

Lord's arrangements. So I want to spend a little bit of time, page 83 and onward, talking about the kingdom of God.

Again, I opened up earlier this morning with the concepts of the kingdom. The kingdom is a lost concept in Christianity today.

It's a lost concept. Most people have a vague understanding of God's kingdom.

But in essence, what is God's kingdom? What is

God's kingdom? Covenant of God, absolutely. That's part of it.

It's certainly covenantal. What is the

American government? Or what is the American kingdom? Think about it.

Okay, so it's a structure, or a system, or I use the term already, it's a government.

Think of what that word government means. It has the word govern.

And meant just means essentially the many. And so governing of the many.

And so you have a government, and that's what God's kingdom is. In essence, it's a government. Again, I think the

NIV translated Matthew 19 where Jesus says, the kingdom of God is in you.

But that's a pretty poor translation. Really what Jesus is saying is the kingdom of God is in your midst.

It's in the middle of you. It's in between you. It's starting to rise. And what we believe is that the message that Jesus preached is very clearly the message, or the gospel, of the kingdom.

Notice what he says in Mark 1 15. He says, the time is fulfilled. This is Jesus opens his ministry.

He says, the kingdom of God is at hand. Okay, Jesus says in Luke 4 43 that his purpose is to proclaim

God's kingdom. Matthew 24 14 says, and this good news, gospel, of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a testimony to the nations, and then the end will come.

So the gospel is of the kingdom. God's kingdom,

God's government has citizens and ambassadors. And that's what the

Christian is. A Christian is a citizen and an ambassador of God's kingdom.

I was at a church. I was just out east with the family celebrating Noah's birthday.

Went to a weekday service out in Charlotte to a church in the area. Man, I really like the church.

I really like the pastor. Really great church. And I was listening to the preacher, and he was talking, he was teaching through Hebrews.

And he was in Hebrews chapter 2, and he talks about the world to come. And I was like, okay, this is really good stuff. And then pastor, bam, he puts a, he's got the nice screen in the back, and he puts a chart.

And the chart was dispensationalism. And talking about the world to come.

And he's how there's going to be a seven -year tribulation. The church is going to get raptured before that. And then all this, and the chart was there, the dreaded dispensationalist chart that I always say.

And what he said is that in the thousand years, there's going to be unregenerate persons, and that they're going to be the subjects over which the kingdom rules.

And I thought, okay, that's an interesting concept. There's going to be a thousand -year rule, and in the midst of that thousand years, there's going to be unbelievers who are going to survive, and they're going to populate the earth, the preacher said, and that they are going to essentially give birth to unregenerate people, and then there'll be one last rebellion, and all these such things.

There's a lot of problems with that contextually and scripturally. The Bible says in 2

Thessalonians 1 that the Lord Jesus, when He returns in flaming vengeance, He's coming to destroy those who do not know the

Lord Jesus Christ and obey His gospel, the gospel of His kingdom. At Christ's second coming, according to 1

Corinthians 15, all His enemies are subdued. All His enemies are subdued. Okay?

How then do unregenerate people come into this supposed rule of Christ when

He destroys His enemies? How do unbelievers then survive that event? How do then they even populate?

My problem with dispensationalism at its core is not just eschatologically, but it's gospel -centered.

It's about the kingdom. They have a misconstrued view of the kingdom. The pastor said, Jesus is going to come back.

He's going to rule from Jerusalem. They're going to build the third temple. He's going to reign from the third temple. That is an upside -down view of God's kingdom because it's the opposite of what

Jesus Himself says. Again, they are to some degree, dispensationalist Christians, are to some degree like the ancient first century

Jews that preceded them. Because what were the first century Jews looking for? Not only

Messiah, but they're looking for a political Messiah, an earthly Messiah, a Messiah who would come and subdue and reign from Jerusalem and do all these things.

And what dispensationalists say was that, well, the Jews weren't actually wrong. They just got the timing wrong.

And I'd say that, no, they were wrong. That is not what Jesus came to do. That's not how

Jesus establishes the kingdom. So we have a clear, actually, difference in the way that we view the kingdom. Dispensationalists and people who are either, you can be historic pre -millennial, you can also be all -millennial or post -millennial and have a more congruent view, a more biblical view of the kingdom.

So it's not just to pick on one eschatological flavor, but I truly believe that dispensationalists have a twisted view of God's kingdom and that becomes a gospel issue.

It's not to say that they're not saved, not to say that, you know, they're, well, I would say that dispensationalism is heretical and not just like little h heresy.

I'd say it's pretty big heresy, but it doesn't necessarily disqualify one from being a Christian. So I'm always very disappointed when

I go to a church and the service is good, the preaching is good, and the, you know, the people are great, and then they're teaching dispensationalism.

It's always a, you know, unfortunate thing. But again, we want to have a right understanding of God's kingdom.

And God's kingdom is essentially God's rule, God's government, God's right to rule on the earth, his authority over heaven and earth.

Now, a couple of years ago, John Piper wrote a book called God is the Gospel, and it caused some controversy because, you know, it kind of sounds weird, but I agree with him.

I love that book. And in essence, what he's saying is what is being said here, because what is the gospel?

The gospel is the message of the kingdom, particularly in the person and work of Jesus Christ by means of his death, burial, and resurrection, okay?

This is a kingdom message, okay? The gospel that saves us, 1 Corinthians 15, is the death, burial, resurrection of Christ.

But it's not something distinct from the kingdom message that Jesus preached, which is why the author says that Jesus is the kingdom in person.

Jesus is the kingdom in person. Do you agree or disagree with that statement? What are your thoughts on that statement?

Jesus is the kingdom in person, because again, what is the kingdom?

It's a government. It's a rule. Who's the ruler? Jesus. So, think of a monarchy.

Who is the head of the British monarchy? Now it's the king.

Long live the king, right? Before that, it was Queen Elizabeth, and she reigned for over 70 years, and she was the,

I think, longest reigning monarch of the British crown. In a sense, the queen or the king is the

British government, okay? And even though now it's more of a figurehead, constitutionally, the monarch of Great Britain still has vast power and authority.

So much so that if the king of England today, King Charles, if he so decided, there's a

TV series based on this. It's actually a really fascinating TV series, and I think it's a British series.

I don't think we have it in the United States. The monarch of Britain can dissolve parliament.

Now, parliament is the supposed real government of Great Britain, because it's a representative democracy.

And so, you have MPs, ministers of parliament, okay?

And they serve as representatives of the people. The people vote. It's a democratic process. But if the king so decided, he could dissolve the parliament, and that means he can get rid of it.

He has the right to do so. Why? Because, in a sense, he is the kingdom. And again, man,

I'm almost tempted to pull up the clip from that program where it's a hypothetical.

This was before King Charles became King Charles, where Queen Elizabeth dies, King Charles becomes king, and he goes, and he marches into the parliament, which is forbidden, because in,

I think, the 1600s or 1700s, I think the original

King Charles, actually, marched into parliament, dissolved them, and basically was going to institute more of a dictatorial rule again.

And then the parliament fought back, and then they got the king, and they killed him. They cut his head off, okay?

But that could technically still happen today, which is why there's more of a distinction between, well, actually, because of that, now the king is more of a figurehead.

But he still has that right. In this TV show, he does that. He comes into parliament, he opens the door, and he dissolves it.

He says, I was born and bred, he says, by holy birthright.

Because he says, I am Britain, and Britain is I. And he says,

I dissolve parliament, and he dissolves it in the show. A really powerful scene. I encourage you to look it up on YouTube.

And in a sense, it's because it's what he's saying is constitutionally true for him. He is the head of that government.

He is the government. Jesus is the kingdom of God. Jesus is

God's kingdom in person. Jesus is not simply a personification, but he often is personified.

For instance, he is God's wisdom, according to Scripture. Wisdom is not a person, but Jesus is the embodiment, personification of God's wisdom.

Jesus is called the Word, the Logos. Jesus isn't literally a word that just comes out of God's mouth, but he is the personification.

He is the Word of God made flesh. So there are a lot of things in Scripture that Jesus personifies, in a sense.

Things that are almost inanimate. For instance, Jesus calls himself, he says, I am the door.

Does that mean that Jesus is literally a door with a doorknob and hinges? No. What he's saying is,

I am the personification, I am the fulfillment, I'm the embodiment of these ideas, of these concepts, of these theological and metaphysical truths.

In the same way, Jesus is the embodiment of God's kingdom. Any questions or thoughts on that?

So he is the kingdom in person. And we know this because Jesus ultimately, he demonstrates his authority as king, as the one ushering

God's kingdom by his divine proclamations. Again, he comes in his incarnation, in his earthly ministry, and he says the kingdom of God is in your midst.

The kingdom of God is near. The kingdom of God is here. So you'll see in different phases of his ministry, he'll say the kingdom of God is nigh, it's near.

The kingdom of God is in your midst, it's breaking in. And then he says the kingdom of God is here.

So he uses all three tenses throughout his ministry. And we're actually going to, in today's sermon, we're going to delve a little bit deep into that as well and the implications it has for us in regard to our spiritual fight against the enemy.

But Jesus often uses these terms in Scripture, in those three different tenses, in order to reveal that he is the breaking in of God's kingdom into the world.

And so, although it may sound a bit controversial to the untrained ear when one says

Jesus is the kingdom in person, I think that is a very theologically accurate description of Christ and of God's kingdom.

So what does Jesus do as king? What does Jesus do as the kingdom personified, as the kingdom in person, is that he delegates authority to his people.

Where does Jesus reign from? He reigns from heaven. Again, dispensations would say, well, to some degree,

Jesus isn't reigning yet, because they believe that Jesus, that the Messiah will reign from Jerusalem.

Okay? We believe, and we confess, Jesus is ruling and reigning today from Jerusalem, the true

Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem. Jesus is enthroned today at God's right hand of majesty.

He is already seated upon his throne. He's already seated upon true Jerusalem. Okay? So we're not waiting for a future enthronement.

Like, dispensations are literally waiting for a future enthronement, which is to say that there is in some sense a way in which

Jesus is not ruling and reigning today. That is theologically inaccurate. It is biblically untrue.

The Bible says and prophesies this concerning Christ in Psalm 110, that the Lord said unto my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies at footstool.

And he says, the word shall go forth from Zion, go rule in the midst of your enemies.

Jesus is doing that today. How do we know this? Early on in the Christian ethos, in the

Christian narrative and story of the church, you have the first martyr who was who? Stephen was the first martyr of the

Christian church. And before he is killed, this is a fascinating vision. Actually, this is a story that converted me to become a

Christian, is Acts chapter 7, Stephen's martyrdom. Because it says in that account, as he was being stoned, that he saw the heavens opened and he saw

Jesus where? Standing at the right hand of God. And he said, and it says in the scripture, he prayed,

Lord Jesus, do not hold this against them.

Okay. So at that moment, I recognize, wait a second, Stephen's praying to Jesus.

The Jehovah Witness Bible, the New World Translation, says, and he entreated.

And interestingly enough, I had the study, their version of a study Bible, the Jehovah Witness study Bible. And the word, it says, and he entreated.

And the footnote says, it can be translated as prayed to. And I was like, that's a pretty hefty admission right there.

And I was confused about, okay, who is Jesus really? Is he Michael the archangel? Is he God? And I thought to myself, well, and the

Jehovah Witnesses don't believe you can pray to Jesus. But I was like, Stephen is praying to Jesus. And at the very least, he's talking to Jesus.

And what's talking to a spirit or to a being from a different realm?

Well, that sounds like prayer to me. So let me just ask Jesus who he is. And so I closed my eyes and I said, Lord Jesus.

And at that moment, I knew he was God. At that moment, God converted me. He gave me a new heart because I knew that he was

Lord. I knew that he was God. I knew that I could pray to him. And so that changed everything for me. And it changed ultimately

Stephen's course because as he was about to die, he has an assurance that Christ is reigning.

So even though his physical condition would tell him that he's being defeated, he saw the victory of Christ as King.

And that's the vision he sees before he dies, before he enters into glory. Isn't that awesome? Isn't that beautiful?

So the imagery that Stephen receives is the rulership of Christ. That though he'd be killed on earth,

Jesus is ruling over his enemies. And at Stephen's death, his martyrdom would serve as a mark of the increase of God's kingdom.

Right? And that's the beauty of the gospel is that despite martyrdom, despite hardship on the earth, despite conditions being going from bad to worse, we still have a victorious eschatology because we know that Jesus is at the right hand of the

Father and he's ruling and reigning now in the midst of his enemies. Isn't that incredible? That's right.

Amen. Isn't that beautiful? Man, what a way to go. That's, I want, that's the way I want to go. And so we understand that Jesus is

King and he gives his church authority.

And what's the biblical case for that? What's the biblical case for Christ giving authority to his church?

That's right. So in the Great Commission, Jesus says, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to me.

Therefore, now that therefore is now the dispensing of a couple of things, the dispensing of the marching orders.

It's also the dispensing of the kingdom authority by which they can now do this work. Because notice in whose name we baptize.

He says, go therefore, as a result that Jesus has all authority in heaven and earth, go therefore into all nations, baptizing them in the name of the triune

God, Father, Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Okay? So, so you have this authority now in the triune

God to evangelize, disciple, and baptize the nations. That's our job.

And that's the authority that Christ has given the church collective. Okay? We also see notions and pictures of the collective authority of the church in Matthew chapter 16,

Matthew chapter 18, where Jesus talks about the keys of the kingdom. To whom were the keys given?

To the church. Now again, depending on your background, there's different answers. One end of the spectrum, you have

Roman Catholicism, which teaches that the keys were given to who? To St. Peter and to his successors, all the popes that have come supposedly since Peter.

Others would say that the keys are a reference to the spiritual gifts or the anointing of the

Holy Spirit within the charismatic movement, for instance. The keys, you know, you'll hear often within charismatic circles,

I bind and I loose you in the name of, you know, and, and they, they do this because they think that that's what that means.

It's, it's, it's I can command heaven to do as I please. Right? Is that the proper understanding of the keys of the kingdom?

No. Proper understanding of the keys of the kingdom is the authority that Christ has given the church, collective, to bind and loose within this kingdom arrangement, which is to say, we affirm you or we do not affirm you in regard to your

Christian witness, whether you are a Christian or not. It is the judgment of the church. It is a church's judgment.

And this is going to be important for us later today, brothers and sisters. And so I encourage you, we have a meeting after our services this afternoon.

So I encourage you to be here as we, as we exercise collectively the keys of the kingdom.

And so the power that's vested into the church is the authority to say you are a citizen or you're not a citizen.

Okay? This is the, you know, we've spent many, much time on, on this topic.

So I don't think we have to, you know, beat a dead horse through, between my teaching and Pastor Conley's teachings on the subject of Matthew 16 and Matthew 18.

But again, it is good just to reiterate these things in regard to when he says, I give you the keys of the kingdom is what he's doing.

He's conferring on them powers of binding and loosing into these keys of the kingdom, these powers of binding and loosing.

It belongs to us collectively, collectively, the church. Any thoughts or questions on that?

What the keys of the kingdom also accomplishes is that it grants the church to act as God's authorized representatives on earth for affirming those who like Peter truly confesses that Jesus is the

Messiah. Remember the great confession of faith in Matthew chapter 16, Peter says, you know, thou art the

Christ, the Son of the living God, and that, and the keys are for all those who confess that to be true.

Right? So that's, so it's not just to Peter, but it's to all those who confess like Peter that Jesus is truly the

Christ. It's the witness of the Christian. And so the job of the Christian now is to, they've been authorized to now bring that messianic message to the world.

Okay, makes sense. So you've been called a Christian and the mark of that is your baptism.

Another kind of a seal of that is your, is by virtue of baptism is now your membership into that local congregation.

You know, you're baptized into Christ, but also into his body. And we believe in the local church.

The church local is the local representative of Christ's body. And so when a person is baptized, they are being baptized into church membership.

So that's, again, that's kind of the thesis that we're working on here. So again, this kingdom authority, as we've looked at some scriptures and we've quoted from scripture, is this kingdom authority to represent

Christ as his ambassadors. A great verse for that, it's also in 2 Corinthians 5, starting in verse 17, that says,

If there is any man who be in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old is gone, the new has come.

Therefore we, as ambassadors of Christ, implore you to be reconciled to God through Christ.

For God made him who knew no sin to become sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

And that's the call of the Christian, is to be an ambassador and to preach the message of reconciliation, the gospel of reconciliation, the gospel of the kingdom.

Again, this is all, I'm just, I'm really pumped about this because this ties in so beautifully with my message this morning as well, during the main service.

And I hope that you see the correlation and the thread that's being woven through what we're teaching here this morning, and what will be spoken of later today.

And then what we will actually actualize after our church services, once we have a quick church meeting.

Now, here's a great question that's essentially the question from pages 89 onward, is what makes a church a church?

So, okay, so we open up with saying, what makes a Christian a Christian, right? Faith in the

Lord Jesus Christ, repentance of sin, baptism, now they're part of the local church, now they're ambassadors of Christ.

So we know that, okay, this is what makes the Christian, but what makes the church? What makes the church?

When I was a church planter in Canada, we had a guy join our church, and he was really gung -ho, really on fire for God, and we loved having him.

But then he just stopped coming one day, and tried to figure out why he's not coming. I talked to him, he's like, well,

I started my own church. I said, what? I said, where did this come from?

He had, someone gave him an opportunity to preach at a senior citizens place, and have, they had like a little chapel, and so he's doing like chapel services there.

He says, oh, we started our own church. And I said, well, did you, or are you just preaching on, are you just preaching there?

He's like, yeah, yeah, I'm preaching there, and I'm doing all these things, and you know, it's our new church now. I said, well, how does that work?

I mean, he thought just by virtue of him preaching that that's now a church.

He had no concept of what makes a church actually a church. I think most Christians today don't actually know what makes a church a church.

If you just go before the senior citizen center, first of all, most of them don't know why they're there.

And so, they're just there because they're a captive audience, and I know because I've preached in senior citizen places, and I've been a guest in many senior citizen homes, and they've got nothing else to do at 10 a .m.

in the morning on a Sunday. You know, they're there because it's chapel time, and then TV's at 11, and then lunch is at 12, and you know, they're just being wheeled in.

That's not a church. That's not a church. It's a service. It's a ministry, but it's not a church.

What makes a church a church? Say again.

One more time. Members. Okay, so what makes someone a member?

Search of a C. Obviously, important.

Another C word? I like commitment. Another C word? Covenant. Covenant.

Coming together in a covenant relationship. It's like what makes a marriage? It's a covenant.

Okay, do you just hold hands one day on the beach and say, I think we're married? I don't think that's the way it works, is it?

You can't just say, oh, I think we're married. When I was a kid, one of my earliest memories,

I think I was three or four, they dressed me up, and I was part of some wedding at the Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses, and another girl, her nickname at the time was

Cookie. Okay, Cookie, like a cookie, but in Spanish, Cookie. Okay, and I remember she was dressed in like a wedding dress, and I was dressed in a tuxedo.

I was freaking out because I thought I was getting married that day. I was like three or four, and it's funny because I think somewhere this footage still exists where we're literally walking down the aisle, and I literally jet and run to my parents because I did not want to get married.

And so, you know, what makes a marriage? What makes a church a church? What makes these things are the idea of covenants.

People coming together and solemnly devoting, committing themselves to this act, to this particular work.

And so, if a people come together, and they congregate, and they not only fellowship, but then they decide we're going to come in covenant community of one another, and we're going to build, and we're going to start a church, that would constitute a church.

And then they'd have to institute elders. They'd have to institute, you know, baptism, Lord's supper, all these things that the

Bible gives us. The Bible being the law book, the guide to the life of the church.

And so, what constitutes a church is, in a sense, a charter or a constitution or a covenant.

These are, you know, constitution charters. These are essentially covenant documents. If you start a business, you have to start a charter.

Like, if you make your own business, you need to have a charter basically stating what your business name is, what your purpose is, what services or what goods you're selling.

And the same thing when a church comes together, and they become a corporation in a sense. Corporation is a word which means, it has two connotations, cooperation amongst many.

Okay? That's what the word cooperation, you know, essentially means. It's cooperation amongst many.

And so, church is a cooperation. It's a corporation. And what brings us together is the covenantal commitment to adhering to Bible belief and standards.

Some of the things that are brought here are the

Charleston Baptist Association, page 91, in 1774 summary of church discipline that defines a local church as follows, a particular gospel church consists of a company of saints incorporated by a special covenant into one distinct body, being together in one place for the enjoyment of fellowship with each other and with Christ their head and all his institutions to their mutual edification and the glory of God through the spirit.

It's a wonderful summation of what the local church is. It is, again, a gospel company of believers coming together in a special covenant as a distinct people for the purposes of meeting, fellowshipping, worshipping

God, and bringing forth God's kingdom into the world. Okay? And we have a constitution.

You can go to our website and look at our church constitution. If you remember, you had to go through the constitution.

You had to go through our statement of belief, which is the 1689 Second Lenten Baptist Confession.

And all these things had to, you know, you had to go through and affirm in order to be a member here.

And so, this is what unites us as a corporation, as a body, as a distinct people is our mission, our values, and, you know, our basis for that being the

Word of God, the Bible. So, then, when you're baptized, especially by a particular church, you are now representing that church.

Right? You're a representative of Christ. So, you have a responsibility, don't you?

And that responsibility is to represent Christ well in the community. I remember in my church in Connecticut, when

I became a member there, it was a great church. And it was a very old church.

It's called Wethersfield Evangelical Free Church. It's still there today. It's a wonderful church, great pastor. And I remember on the church covenant, which every year we would actually read through it corporately.

We would recite it together during one of our church meetings. And in that meeting, in that church covenant, it says one of the,

I guess, one of the means of being disciplined is…or reasons for being disciplined would be anything that would become unfitting to the

Christian character. Okay? And that really brings home the severity of understanding the gravity of what you're representing.

And we have a witness that we have to give the world. And there are a lot of things that we can do and partake in that can become unfitting or unbecoming of our

Christian character and of our Christian witness, which is why it's so important that we recognize, you know, the importance of coming into a church membership, coming into a church community that takes these oaths seriously.

And what a blessing it is to be part of a church that takes these commitments seriously, where other churches are kind of, you know…I forget what the statistic is, but most churches in America do not practice any form of church discipline.

You know what church discipline looks like? You just start attending a different church, or you stop attending altogether, right?

There is no formula. There is no formulation of these things. Most churches do not practice any form of church discipline.

Most people will just self -impose it. They'll just stop going, or they'll find another church.

And again, most churches don't communicate with one another, and there's no, you know…we're a unique church in that we take these things seriously, and we take them biblically as we should.

And so, we've come to the conclusion of our time. Are there any last thoughts or questions on this material? You understand why your, you know, baptism is a sign of God's…of your passport as a kingdom citizen?

You represent Christ. You represent His kingdom at large, but you also represent His local church, the local body of Christ.

And it is a mark that follows you throughout your Christian life. And so, whether you're part of this church or another church, eventually you're going to…you still represent the same kingdom, should you be in Christ.

And so, you can take your membership. This is what we do practically in this church, is that when a person leaves the church, maybe relocates, they don't necessarily just cease being members here.

That membership continues until they're transferred to another church. And so, there's a smooth transition.

Does that make sense? So, any last thoughts or questions? Yes? How should we look at Presbyterians?

That's right. Well, our view is that we should baptize them. That's our view.

And again, you know, we don't…for the spirit of unity or conformity, we often…you know, again, there's much reason to fellowship and praise our

Presbyterian brothers and sisters because we have so much in common. But that is not to say that these things are not important.

Obviously, that's why there's a denominational line and distinction between Baptists and Presbyterians. It's because it is a severe issue and it's an important issue.

So, there's been debates on that for hundreds of years between Baptists and Presbyterians.

I don't think we'll sell it today. But the view within the Baptist circles has always been two.

One is that the mode of baptism is illegitimate, but the baptism is still legitimate in that it was done sincerely.

And so, they believe that it's still valid, where other Baptists would say it's unvalid because it isn't baptism.

I would be more on that side, that it is not a valid baptism. As our confession says in chapter 29 in paragraph 4, it says, immersion or dipping of the person in water is necessary to the due administration of this ordinance.

Now, how some have interpreted this, even from our confession, is that, well, the administration of Presbyterian baptism is incorrect, but it doesn't delegitimize a genuine person of faith being sprinkled.

So, it was an illegitimate administration, but not an illegitimate… I don't know how that works.

It doesn't make sense to me. That's why I don't take that position, where the administration of it is incorrect, but it's still valid because of the sincerity behind it.

I don't think that's a good case. Yes, which is why they have confirmation, because they have to…

Of course, they baptize infants, and then they have to have a confirmation, which is to say, hey, that thing that we did when you were a baby is legitimate because you now believe, right?

I would say so, yeah, which is why we discourage them from partaking in communion here when they visit, because they haven't been baptized by full immersion, which is a necessary requirement for the due administration of the ordinance.

And so, again, some of the historic… Again, in our context, we like to minimize some of these things, but this is why we have a distinct denomination from, you know, the

Paedo -Baptists, and this is why we are called Baptists, is because this is a big deal.

It's not a small, you know, issue. This is a big issue.

So, all right, let me pray, and then we can get ready for service. Father, we thank You, Lord, for Your goodness.

We pray, Lord, that You would grant us wisdom in all these things and more. Father, for the glory of Your name, the edification of Your church, help us,

Lord, to see the importance that it is to be baptized in union with Christ, to be joining the union of the body of Christ in the corporation of God's people, and we pray,

Lord, that we would work cooperatively unto that end to make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the