Apologia Church- ESCHATON: Part 1: Eschatology Matters

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Debate: Christianity or Atheism? Part 2

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Be Thou my vision, O Lord, of my heart.

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Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art my light.

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Join with me in prayer as we get into this first of our series called Eschaton. God, I come before You, Lord, as a pastor,

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Lord, over these people that You've brought out of the world to Yourself, and the ones that You've brought into this room together today,

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God. I come to You asking, Lord, that You would entirely get me out of the way. I pray,

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Lord, that in this whole series, God, that You would guard my heart, my mind, my mouth.

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Lord, help me to be submitted to You and Your truth. I pray that You'd guard me from error, guard us from error.

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I pray, Lord, that You would illuminate Your Word by Your Spirit, that You'd teach us, God. And the most important thing,

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Lord, is in my own fallible condition, in my own brokenness, God, I just pray that You'd be glorified and Christ would be exalted,

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Lord, and You would use this series, God, to reshape the way that we think, God, about You, the way that we think about the world, the way that we think about the

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Messiah and His kingdom. And, Lord, I pray with all my heart, God, that You would use this series as a blessing to Your church,

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God, both in this room, God, and around the world, Lord, whether it's pulled down on the

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Internet or wherever people get it, God, that You would use this, Lord, as healing for the church, God, to correct us, to get us back on track,

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Lord, to have a vision, Lord, of Jesus, Father, and His mighty kingdom and His power,

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Lord, that transforms the world. In Jesus' name, amen. So, the series,

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Eschaton, there it is, by the way. Pastor Luke is an amazing artist.

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He's always done our stuff and did a phenomenal job. Pastor Luke, when he was creating this, puts this together and it's so perfect because there's so many elements of this to perfectly describe the whole point of the series.

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I mean, in a visual, in a symbol, that's it right there. The mountain of the

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Lord, this mustard seed that grows into a large tree and the birds of the air nest in its branches.

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I mean, that's what the whole series is about. And some of you guys are thinking, all that just sounded really weird and hooky to me,

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Pastor Jeff. I don't know what that means. But believe me, you're going to catch it and it's going to be so significant to you because we're trying to center what we're saying about the end of the world, the climax of history, which is centered around what the

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Bible teaches about that subject, the climax of history. What does it look like in history?

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Why would we do a series like this, Eschaton? Is it just to be popular? Because, you know, in our culture, you can have a series you do on, say, the

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Trinity, right? You could do like, hey, we're doing a 17 -week series on the Trinity. People are like, hey, right on.

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Like, how are we going to do that and how exciting is that? And I want to say that's not good. And that's not good. John Samson, I saw you had on your list of sermons on monergism .com,

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it said you have one called, I Love the Trinity, right? I love the Trinity. How many Christians say that today?

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I love the Trinity. If you don't say that, you need to. You need to learn to love what the Bible says about the triunity of God and its glorious and God's plan of redemption that the

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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit fulfill. It's awesome. But normally, you can't get Christians today overly excited about a series on the

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Trinity, right? Or the nature of Christ as God and man. Like, big series, huge conference selling out, maybe.

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But, but, but, but, but, but, but, do a conference on end times.

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Throw in terms like antichrist, whores riding beasts, drunk with blood, right?

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Six, six, six, and you will sell out. You will have shoulder to shoulder.

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I mean, you will seriously have a line. You have scalpers outside selling tickets to that conference on eschatology.

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Our culture is enamored by this. When I say culture, I say Christian culture.

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And that's seen obviously in the success of the series like the Left Behind series.

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Millions upon millions upon millions upon millions upon millions of copies sold.

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Tim LaHaye, Jerry B. Jenkins, the series Left Behind. If you don't know the book series, you may be familiar with the movie that went to the theaters years ago with Kirk Cameron, Kirk Cameron from Growing Pains, the

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Left Behind series. So it's popular. Our culture loves it. If you go to a

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Christian bookstore, they always have the what section? The prophecy section, right? And you get all the famous guys.

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Hal Lindsey, right? You got the Tim LaHaye's. You got all the guys. So what's going on in Israel right now?

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What's happening in Israel? Is this guy the antichrist? Is this guy the antichrist? And I want to just tell you, that's not a new thing for Christians.

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That's as old as dirt. It's as old as dirt. You can look at Christians writing 200 years ago, 300 years ago, and everyone's always trying to look at the newspaper and see who the antichrist is.

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And for some people before, it was the Pope in Rome. He was the antichrist. For a guy I met on Mill Avenue once, it was

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George Bush. He's the antichrist. We're always looking and people are always trying to do newspaper eschatology, right?

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Or exegesis, to look at the newspaper and say, what's happening in the world today? And they go running off to the

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Bible to see where they could find something that looks like that in the Bible. And so this is just something that interests people.

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And I'm going to say it should, but I think people have an unhealthy interest at times in eschatology.

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Or in eschatology, a pursuit of knowing what does God say about the end that isn't rooted in the scriptures themselves, but it's more rooted in pop culture.

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What's this famous author say? Or a lot of times we come to the scriptures as Gentiles.

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You know what that means? Non -Jews, okay? Yeah, Jews and Gentiles. We don't have the Hebrew worldview.

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And so with that, we come to the Bible without a Hebrew -like mind, without a

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Hebrew -type worldview and symbolism and imagery. And we go to the Bible and someone picks up the

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Bible with a Gentile understanding, not knowing the scriptures and the redemptive story that God has in the

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Bible. And we run to the Bible and we start just molding it into whatever we want.

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We start guessing instead of reading the Bible biblically. Now I'm going to say that in this whole series,

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I'm going to say things to you guys a lot, a few things. I want you to sort of grab onto and just kind of hold onto and know.

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When you're studying the Bible and specifically studying eschatology or the study of last things, you really have two choices fundamentally.

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Number one, you can guess. You can make it up. You go to the

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Bible, you could see something like a whore drinking blood, wearing purple and scarlet with Babylon written on her head, riding a seven -headed, ten -horned beast.

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And you could go looking into the world to find that person, possibly Van Buren, right? That's where you go looking for it now.

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The idea is, I like to say that because Arizonans know what that means. But the idea is, you know, where do we find this woman?

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But you see, you can guess and start looking into a newspaper and saying, who's the Antichrist today?

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Bin Laden? Saddam Hussein? Who's the Antichrist? The Pope? George Bush? Who's the

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Antichrist? And you can go running off in a newspaper and try to find the Antichrist. Or second option, this is what

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I want to try to encourage us to go to when we study end times. You can either guess first or you can do it biblically.

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What I mean by that is, you say, well, obviously, Jeff, do it biblically, right? The idea is, you can actually let the

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Bible interpret the Bible. You can look at the whole beautiful story of God's plan of redemption in Scripture and you could say, what does this mean in Scripture?

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Where else did God say this? And what was God's plan with this? Why is Jesus talking about this? And why do they seem to know this detail?

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Like, what is today? What is today? What's that? You guys are afraid of me?

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I'm not going to hurt you, okay? It's Palm Sunday. It's Palm Sunday.

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And interestingly, it's a significant thing for us as Christians because we look back on it and we say, hey, Palm Sunday is where Jesus came riding on that donkey, lowly, humble, coming into Jerusalem and they're saying,

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Hosanna, Hosanna, and they're quoting the Scriptures. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. And that was prophecy of the king riding into Jerusalem.

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They had that worldview. They knew that this plan of redemption was going on. History was linear.

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It was going somewhere. It wasn't in flux. It wasn't cycles. It wasn't chaos.

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It was a line in history. History was going somewhere. And when they see Jesus coming into Jerusalem, Hosanna, Hosanna.

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And they see this as fulfillment. The king is coming. And it wasn't like, oh, we get a king now?

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Oh, that's neat. It was a big deal. It was what they had been anticipating. Eschatology matters.

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Now, I'm using these words. Watch this. And the cool thing about Apologia that I love is many of you are brand new believers.

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I like that. I do. I like it because we get a chance now to go to the Scriptures and just pour into you the

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Scriptures and this biblical worldview. But at the same time, I realized something and I want you to know this.

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I am so sensitive to and aware of the fact that many of us are new believers and I start throwing terms around like eschatology and you're like,

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Esco, what, what? You know what that means? And I'm going to just say, I'm going to explain these things. I don't want them to go over your head because I don't want to talk over you.

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I want to communicate with you as a body. I want you guys to know these things because this is not just about having a series. My heart's desire,

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I want you to know this, is that through this series, not only will you be changed, but you will be used now as God's people to change and transform the entire world.

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Is it possible for a little church like this in the corner of Phoenix? Is it possible for God to change the world through a small church like this?

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Well, yes. I remember about three disciples standing before Jesus as he ascended to heaven.

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That was about 2 ,000 years ago in a mostly illiterate part of the world in Palestine. These guys didn't have these fat, awesome college degrees.

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These were fishermen, some of them. And God used them to change the world, amen? So I believe that'll do that.

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But I'm going to use these terms and I want you to catch what they mean. Are you ready? So some of this will be like a seminary course in some respects.

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A lot of times we want preaching to be one way and like seminary instruction to be another way.

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But I'm going to say I think you're going to see intersections of how this feels. I want to instruct us. So the word eschatology, what's that mean?

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Well, eschatology is a compound actually of two Greek words. Eschatology is a compound of two

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Greek words, one eschatos and the other logia, okay? Eschatos and logia.

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And eschatos essentially means last, okay? Get it? It means last, eschatos, last.

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And then logia, it means word or discourse. So putting these together, eschatology, what are we talking about?

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We're talking about, ready? The study of last things, okay? So eschatology, eschatos, and logia is a compound.

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And what it means is the study of last things. What are we talking about? We're talking about last things, which is really cool because I want to tell you right now, only the biblical worldview can say this.

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Only the biblical worldview has a view of history that actually has the last things in them, right?

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Because you look at the world and if you have a pagan view of history, it's in cycles, it's always in flux, and it's just kind of changing, but it goes secular, it's pagan worldview.

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Or you can have more of a naturalistic worldview today, say an evolutionary worldview where it's all just chaos.

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There is no governance. There is no personal order. There's no plan of history.

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It's just kind of happening and it's just sort of bubbling up and it's sort of bobbing on the surface of the cosmos. But we have in a biblical worldview a view that there is such a thing as a last things, that there's a climax to history, that when

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God starts something, he has a view to where it's going and he is sovereign over it. Some of you guys have heard the popular thing that's said a lot in Christian circles, and that is that R .C.

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Sproul said something, there's not one maverick molecule in the entire universe.

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The biblical worldview gives us the fact that God is in charge of history and everything in it. Your life, my life, the little things, the micro things, and the macro things, the whole plan of history in his hand.

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He knows where it's going. He controls where it's going. History is in the hands of an almighty and powerful

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God who's spoken into existence and he's in control of everything. He's in charge. So when we talk about the series name,

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Eschaton, what's that mean? Well, that is talking about the climax of history.

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The climax of history. So Eschatology is the study of last things. The name of the series is

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Eschaton. And what we're trying to figure out is this. Seeing as the sovereign God, the only

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God, the true and living God, none before, none after, the first, the last, that God who declares the end from the beginning is in charge of history, we're asking the question, this line of history, where's it going?

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What is the view in scripture? What's it going to look like? I mean, think about this for a moment.

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If you guys have been in church for a while or you've been around the church, you've heard things like, well, we're just waiting for things to crash and burn enough till finally, what's going to happen?

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In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned. See that sticker?

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Right? You see it? Every time I see that sticker, I'm going to pull a California stop on it. You know what that is?

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So you ever seen a California stop? It's, you know, when you watch the police chasing the vehicles and the cops will get right up next to them like this and then they'll bump the edge of the tire and just, sorry,

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I'm trying to work on sanctification on that one, guys. So in case of rapture, this car will be unmanned.

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Or how about this? Was it a year ago when the false prophet, what's his name?

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What was his name? Yeah, Harold Camping, the false prophet extraordinaire. All over the world, stole money from Christians, stole money, yes, stole money from people by telling them that Jesus was going to return at a specific time, at a specific hour.

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Jesus is returning, took money from Christians, millions of dollars in collected, billboards all over the planet.

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People gave up their jobs. They gave away their savings to be part of this ridiculous eschatology, the belief that Jesus was going to return at a particular time.

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And what were the atheists selling? I saw him wearing the T -shirts. I survived the rapture, right?

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Or proud to be left behind. Or people were actually saying to these Christians, or these people who are professing to be

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Christians, who were engaged in this ridiculous eschatology with Harold Camping, they were saying, well, if Jesus is coming back, do you mind signing a house over to me when you disappear?

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Let's go, come on now, put your money where your mouth is, let's go, come on. Where's the contract? I'll take your house when you're gone. I mean, just an amazing thing, just the eschatologies matter.

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You know, you may be aware of the fact that many people think that there's going to be a seven -year tribulation.

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That's a popular view today. It's not the only Christian view today. There's going to be a seven -year tribulation. There's going to be a secret rapture where many will be left behind.

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There'll be an Antichrist figure who rises up, who brings a covenant of peace to the people of Israel.

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Then three and a half years later, he breaks this covenant of peace with Israel, and all hell breaks out on earth.

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And those who are left behind have to endure this great tribulation where ultimately the world goes to hell in a handbasket.

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Two -thirds of the Jews are slaughtered. Finally, they have Jesus come back and return to a defeated church and a defeated world where he finally comes back in victory to await now a thousand -year reign of Christ on earth to which at the end of that,

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Satan is unleashed again where there's another battle that breaks out to where finally Jesus wraps up human history into the eternal state after all of that.

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Ultimately, that's the popular view today. Does it matter?

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Because here's what I'm going to say to you. Listen, listen. I have heroes, and you should too,

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I have heroes, Christian men of God that I look up to that I don't think

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I'll ever be half as solid a Christian as they are who believe that view of eschatology.

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You should know this. Ready? These are what we call in Christian circles in -house debates.

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You should know that. When we talk about end -time stuff, we're talking about an issue that is very, very important.

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Very important. I'm not saying it's not important because it's a non -essential issue. It's very important, but it's not something that we want to divide as Christians over to say, well, you don't hold my eschatology, so I'm not serving

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Jesus with you. We all believe the same God, the same gospel. Amen? That's the truth.

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But know this, that there are Christians that hold different views of end times, but should we just say, well, no one seems to get it right, so it doesn't really matter?

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I want to say this, eschatology matters a great, great deal. The Bible talks a lot about it, and I want to say that we can know.

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The problem is we have to be willing to let go of our traditions. We have to be willing to come to the Scriptures and say, you know, what do the

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Scriptures say? What do they teach? And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to share with you guys a few reasons here why do this study.

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First thing is, number one, we are called in Scripture to rightly divide the word of truth.

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2 Timothy 2 .15, you guys can run there real fast. I'm going to have you guys read that. 2 Timothy 2 .15,

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New Testament as to the right of your Bible. If you get to Revelation, you are too far. 2 Timothy 2 .15.

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I'll let you guys get there. I'd like to hear the turn of the pages, and you guys are going to be wanting to bring your Bibles as much as possible through this series because I want you to be able to see the text with your own eyes and to work through this together with me.

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Very important that we're in the text in this series, that we're not giving you just charts and a whole system, but we're letting you see in the text of Scripture.

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What does the word of God say? I'm going to read to you. This is a letter of Paul to Timothy. 2

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Timothy 2 .15. Let me just start one above that so you can read this.

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2 .14. So, first reason why this study is very important is that, as Christians, we're called to accurately handle the word of truth, to rightly divide the word of truth.

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We're called by God to test all things. The Bible says, hold fast to that which is true.

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I want you to consider something, a moment in our own history as the people of God. Now, watch this. Some of you guys know this by way of a children's song.

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Be a Berean. Look what you see. No one knows. Okay, I'm sorry.

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I had to totally plan a different direction. Okay, so I should have thought something different. Obviously, no one knows that. In our history, the kingdom of God in the world, we have in the book of Acts an incident where the

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Apostle Paul goes into a place called Berea. Now, what it does is it actually gives a compliment.

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The Scriptures give a compliment to the people in Berea that you need to be aware of. And it's a famous scene.

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There's a bookstore named after it, Berean Christian Bookstores, right? You know the bookstore? Okay. Paul goes to Berea, and what it says is a compliment to Christians.

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You need to hear, when you think about issues like eschatology, and what does the Bible say about the end of the world, and the climax of history, and this is what happens.

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Paul goes into Berea, and it says that the people who were in Berea were more noble -minded, more noble -minded than the ones in Thessalonica.

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Because when Paul comes into Berea, and he's bringing the Scriptures, telling them about Jesus, Yeshua the

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Mashiach, Jesus the Messiah, they're basically doing this. Oh, that's awesome.

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Where does it say that? Where, Paul? Show me where.

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They were probably like this. Where is it on this scroll right there? But they were asking the question, where is it at?

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Wait, show me where. And it's not a bad thing for Christians to say to somebody even with a reputation, your pastor, your favorite minister, rock star pastors, we've got lots of those today, or favorite theologian, to ask the humble question, the necessary question for Christians, and that is this, where does it say that?

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Show me in the Scriptures. And they do that with Paul, and Paul gives them the Gospel, gives them this

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Messiah, and they're searching the Scriptures daily. You know what God says to the Christian who does that? He says, you're more noble -minded than one in Thessalonica, because they receive the

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Word, and they search the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was so. It's important for us as Christians, why do this study?

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Because God calls you to rightly divide the Word of truth. Bible tells us to test all things, hold fast to that which is true.

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Jesus says, thy Word is truth. It was clear in Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. Guys, what's the test of a prophet?

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What do we do when we have someone that's professing to be a part of God's work in history? They're teaching us about God.

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They're telling us about God. They're claiming a position of being called by God. What does the Bible tell us to do with people like that?

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It's to see if what they say lines up with the Word of God as He's revealed it.

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Amen? That's the test of a prophet. Deuteronomy 13, one through four says, even if someone came and they had signs and wonders,

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I mean, it looks good. They're raising the dead. Maybe they can multiply fish and loaves. I mean, they're doing crazy signs and wonders.

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It looks like a successful ministry. And Deuteronomy 13, one through four says, no matter how successful the ministry is, no matter what it looks like, if they lead you after other gods, gods which you have not known,

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God says, that's how you know they're a false prophet. What does Isaiah say? Isaiah chapter eight, verse 20 says, to the law and to the testimony.

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If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because they have no light in them. The test was always, what is what this guy says?

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How does it look with the scriptures next to it? What is Paul's test in Romans? When he's bringing the gospel, guys, think about it.

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When he's bringing the gospel, what does he do as the standard? He asks the question in Romans chapter four, what does it say?

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He says, what do the scriptures say? The test is, what does the scriptures say?

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That's always the test. God calls us to be like that. Second reason as to why to do this study.

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Other than wanting to be someone who accurately handles the Word of God, is number two, we as Christians, guys, let's think about something very significant.

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Guys, just come with me here for a second. Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.

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No man comes to the Father but by me. Guys, we say as Christians, it's our

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MO. It's what we're all about. We say that we're in love with the one who's the very embodiment of truth.

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That's Jesus. And so as Christians, obviously we're fallible. We can all blow it and we do.

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But what is that, should we be satisfied with just blowing it and just, and even coming to the

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Word of God, which is the very words of a living God, should we be satisfied with newspaper exegesis?

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When we go to the newspaper and we start trying to throw stuff from the newspaper today into the Bible? Is it okay for us as Christians to not care about accurately handling this issue?

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Going to the scriptures to actually say, what does God say about this? It couldn't be something that we as Christians should ever pursue.

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We say we love the one who's the embodiment of truth, guys. And listen, I'm gonna just say this. I'm gonna raise the standard for a second.

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Raise the standard. Christians, we blow it. We're fallible. God is infallible.

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He's eternal. He's infinite. We're not. But you know what, here's the thing. As fallen people now redeemed by God, we should desire to glorify

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God with our thinking, with the way that we think about him, ourselves, the world.

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We shouldn't be content with happy inconsistencies as Christians. We shouldn't be content with something that doesn't make sense.

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We have a reason as Christians to want something to be logical and reasonable. We have a reason as Christians to want it to actually work because we love the truth.

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Jesus is the embodiment of truth and we love him. We gotta be Christians that actually show that in our lives.

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We don't wanna just bite the first thing that comes down the road and say, well, I guess that's true, I'll take that.

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We wanna search the scriptures to say, what does God say about this? The third thing I'm gonna say is this.

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This is probably where this is really gonna hook. You guys will catch this now. It's gonna start tasting like this is making sense now.

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Number three, a bad eschatology, a bad view of the end of history, a bad view of the climax of history, what does it look like from the scriptures will have consequences.

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It's not like a bad eschatology is no big deal. Let me just share with you some stuff.

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This is where, a lot of this, the first message, as I give you the broad picture, some of this will be autobiographical,

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I understand that, and I don't really like doing that, but I have to sort of share with you my experience so you understand why

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I believe this is really important and how I was sort of corrected myself. I believed one thing and I was corrected by the scriptures and I wanna share that experience with you so you understand, as Christians, we can be one way for a long time, but when you get corrected by God, even if you held something and you cherished it, it's a beautiful thing.

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It's not a bad thing. It's a beautiful thing for God to correct you and your thinking, because it's not like it wrecks your life.

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It only expands and beautifies your intimacy with God when he corrects you. So on the issue of eschatologies have consequences.

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The first thing I wanna say is this, and this is where you guys will probably start grasping some of this, is many cults in the last 200 years have risen up, even on American soil, as apocalyptic cults.

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Oh, I love that word, don't you? It's fun to even say that. That's why Christians love it, is apocalyptic, right? Apocalyptic cults, just on American soil alone.

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Consider it for a moment. Mormonism was a religion that in many ways was based on a faulty eschatology.

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Joseph Smith in the first century predicted the coming of Christ within his generation.

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As a matter of fact, you can listen to the video I just put up on YouTube of us at the temple this week as some of the guys were there.

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These missionaries walked by me, Mormon missionaries at the temple. They walked by, and just so you know, I'm a little more aggressive with Mormon missionaries because they're every day proclaiming the gospel of death door to door.

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And so I'm a little more aggressive. So, context is important. But they walked by, and I said, elders, you ever see any of Joseph Smith's false prophecies?

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He said, oh, we don't look at that. So you don't look at your prophet's teachings? And they're like, no, we don't look at that stuff. I said, Joseph Smith said that Jesus was gonna return in 56 years.

27:58

He said, no, he didn't. I said, yes, he did, I'll show you right here. He didn't wanna see it. He left within about 30 seconds of that. But the idea is that first century, you can see peppered across all

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Mormon history and documents. Joseph Smith and the early prophets and apostles of Mormonism taught that Jesus was gonna return in their generation before they all died.

28:17

It was a religion that sprang out of a bad eschatology. Oh, and ready for this one?

28:23

The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Jehovah's Witnesses. What? 7 a .m.,

28:29

knocking at my door. What? Jehovah's Witnesses, Brooklyn, New York.

28:35

Charles Taze Russell. This was a religion that specifically sprung out of a bad eschatology.

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There are a lot of other things. But the Jehovah's Witnesses predicted the coming of Christ over the last century numbers of times and failed every single time.

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As a matter of fact, in the 70s, they lost a great majority of their membership due to a failed prophecy of the coming of Christ.

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And they continue to go today, this day. David Koresh, famous, everyone knows,

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Waco, Texas. Waco just sounds crazy. When you just say Waco, I'm like, wow. That's where David Koresh belonged.

29:19

Sorry if anyone's in Waco or listening to this message around the world. Just a joke, calm down, okay. David Koresh specifically placed himself into the

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Book of Revelation and his cult sprang out of the idea that he was

29:34

God. He was essentially the return of Christ and he used the Book of Revelation to delude his followers.

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Eschatology matters. It matters greatly. How many people, when

29:49

Harold Camping gave this false prediction of Christ's coming, how many people lost their life savings?

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How many people's lives were disrupted because of this false prophet with his bad eschatology?

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Does eschatology matter? It matters a great deal. It has consequences.

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And from my own experience, I want to just share with you that the second thing here is, as a

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Christian, a bad eschatology will render you and your witness impotent and your legacy in history impotent.

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Consider this for a second. If you were in a battle, you're in a battle, okay.

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You're overseen by a captain and you're on the battlefield, right. And your captain says to you, guys, are you ready?

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We're going to fight. You're like, yeah, right. You're getting loaded up and getting all your stuff, everything ready to go.

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All right, ready to go, ready to go. We're going to fight. We're going to fight. You're like, yeah. And everyone's roar.

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People are beating on their chest. And all the men are getting excited. You're getting goosebumps right now, aren't you dudes, right? Right now as I speak, you're already getting excited.

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You're thinking Braveheart, you're painting your face, all that stuff, right? Yeah, and he goes, all right, guys, ready?

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We're going to go fight. And there isn't a chance in the world that any of you are making it out alive.

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As a matter of fact, I offer you a 100 % guarantee that as you go to throw your lives into the field right now to fight this battle, 100 % guarantee you're going to fail and it ultimately will have no effect in this moment.

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Go! People kind of, mm, just a minute.

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Just a second. Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. Do you get the point? It matters.

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It matters if you believe that no matter what your efforts are in the world and in history, what you do, ultimately the church is defeated in the end and Christ has to come to a defeated church in the world and that nothing you do ultimately matters in history in the sense of transforming the world in history.

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Now, what are we doing? Does it affect how you view legacies that you leave? Let me ask you a question.

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If you believe that ultimately the witness of the church in the world is going to be defeated and Jesus has to return to a defeated church, will it affect your view of 40 million babies being murdered in your society and your, the necessary element of you being involved in stopping it?

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Will it affect that? It certainly will. Eschatologies matter. It changes your whole perspective of your world, the legacy that you leave, your kids and what's coming for them.

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It matters. J. Vernon McGee was famous for this. He's a, by the way, an amazing

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Bible teacher. Love J. Vernon McGee. He was great. He was great, okay? He's a little off in this area though because J.

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Vernon McGee, I love J. Vernon McGee by the way, he has a famous statement.

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He said this and this comes from him. Why polish brass on a sinking ship?

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That is because his view of the end of the world and the climax of history was that the world is, the church is defeated in history.

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It doesn't really matter because we're going to lose. Darkness is going to overwhelm us.

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The ship is sinking. Why polish brass on a sinking ship?

33:36

That's what he said. I was in a seminary class. I was in a seminary class and I'm doing a seminary class with a mixed bag of dudes, okay?

33:45

Different eschatologies and that's great. Again, this is a non -essential issue that doesn't cause

33:50

Christians to divide. But my professor, great man of God, was of the perspective that is popular today, left behind series, dispensational pre -millennialism it's called.

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Don't worry about the word. I'll teach you what that means. Basically, secret rapture, seven years of tribulation, Jesus returns, thousand years on earth, ultimately to another releasing of Satan until finally the state to come.

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And so I'm talking to him about some verses and I said, well, professor, how would you answer this? I have more of an optimistic view of the kingdom of Christ in history.

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And he says, Jeff, I respect your views. And I gave him a few verses. He didn't answer. But he says,

34:27

I respect your views, Jeff. He says, however, the world is going to hell in a handbasket.

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He said, there's no point in polishing brass on a sinking ship. And I was talking about the necessary element of Christians being involved in bringing the gospel into the world to the view that the whole world is transformed by the gospel and that all the nations come to this

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Messiah and they stream up to the mountain of God. And he says to me, Jeff, it doesn't really matter. Why bother?

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And you might think, do people really think like that? And the answer is yes. Yes, they do.

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And so what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna just kind of read you a couple of quotes briefly. Actually, I'll wait on the quotes for a moment.

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Okay. Doesn't matter. I'll give you a story briefly about a mom. So there's a guy who's a post -millennialist.

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By the way, I just gave it away. That's what I believe and that's what we're gonna be going through while we're here. Post -millennialism, it's referred to.

35:28

And a woman comes in his church and she has been a part of the popular cultural secret rapture, seven years of tribulation.

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And she said this to the pastor. She said, because she ended up switching her view to a more optimistic view of Jesus and history.

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She said, you know, when I believed dispensational pre -millennialism and I was waiting for the rapture, she said, I didn't wanna have kids.

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I fought with my husband about having kids. We didn't wanna have kids. Why wouldn't you wanna have kids?

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Why wouldn't you wanna have kids? She said, I was afraid to have kids because I thought to myself, what's the use of having kids and raising them up when the world is just gonna get worse and worse and worse before Jesus comes?

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Why would I wanna ever bring anyone into a world that's gonna look like that? And then she said, post -millennialism, a change of her view of the victory of God in history changed her motherhood.

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It changed her as a mom. Eschatology matters. And then it changed to where she had six kids after that, six children.

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And she saw that her role as a mom was to change the world via the gospel through even her own children that she brought into the world.

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Her eschatology changed even her view of having children and her role in ministry as a mom and how that would leave a legacy of the gospel through her children into the rest of the world.

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Does eschatology matter? It changed even this woman's view of motherhood. It does matter.

36:54

Your eschatology does matter. Now, I'm gonna give you this, right, if you're taking notes, ready? I'm gonna essentially try to boil it down here.

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In the study of last things and end times, are you ready? You can boil eschatologies and the different views that exist amongst wonderful men and women of God down to essentially two eschatologies.

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Are you ready? Essentially two that best express or codify where we're going.

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Are you ready? Number one, you've got eschatologies of historic pessimism.

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Historic pessimism. Now, notice this. Watch this. I have to definitely qualify this to be fair.

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It's in the men and women of God that I love that don't share my view of eschatology. Okay?

37:39

I'm gonna qualify this. Historic pessimism does not mean that Christians that hold to a view of, say, a secret rapture and an

37:45

Antichrist figure, it does not mean that they don't believe that Jesus is ultimately victorious at the end of history.

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Know that. Every single Christian on the planet believes that Jesus is victorious at the end of history.

37:57

Okay? So we're all together on that. We all believe the same thing about that. But here's the question. Before we get there, what happens here in history?

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And you've got two different eschatologies. One is historic pessimism.

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In history, pessimism. It's gonna get worse. It's gonna get worse. There'll ultimately not be a full transformation of the world with the kingdom of God invading every culture, all the nations, tribes, tongues coming to God.

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But there's gonna be times of defeat where Jesus has to ultimately rescue a defeated church.

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And the second option, and here's what I'm trying my very best through the scriptures as we do this series, to ultimately give you the scriptures and convince you of as a church, as a people of God.

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Historic optimism. And that is the view from the

38:49

Old Testament to the New Testament, the Bible had a vision of what was gonna happen when this messianic figure came into the world.

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Listen, listen. Today's Palm Sunday. It's Palm Sunday. And when Jesus, the Messiah, the

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King rode lowly on a donkey coming into Jerusalem, that was not an insignificant moment.

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That was an expectation that this Messiah was coming. And they knew that when this messianic

39:14

King came into the world, it wasn't gonna be a little deal. It meant the forgiveness of sins. It meant that our sins are gonna be taken away from us.

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It meant there was gonna be a new covenant. And it meant that this Messiah, this messianic figure was gonna be

39:26

King and that all the nations, Isaiah 2 says, were gonna stream up to the mountain of God.

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By the way, and I keep wanting to repeat this to you every time I say it, water doesn't stream upwards, right?

39:43

So the idea was this messianic figure was gonna come and all the nations were gonna stream up. What did that mean?

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That God was gonna draw the nations to Himself. Let me give you some quotes

39:57

I think you need to hear. Some quotes from some books. John MacArthur, one of my heroes, a man that I actually would attribute

40:09

God's providential moment in my own life of really bringing me to Christ. I had what I thought was an experience of knowing

40:14

Jesus before my drug addiction. But after my drug addiction, I really know that God turned my heart to Him and I turned to Christ after my addiction.

40:23

And how that happened was I read a book by John MacArthur called The Gospel According to Jesus.

40:29

And God used that message in that book, I think, to just really shake me into repentance and turn me to Christ.

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So when I talk about John MacArthur here, I'm talking about one of my heroes, understand? But here's what he says about end time stuff.

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MacArthur says, Right? Every Christian believes what?

40:51

At His appearing, victory. But here's what MacArthur says. Oh. But that's what he says.

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Now notice what he says. Oh. But we do not expect a hostile world to capitulate gradually to His Lordship before He returns in glory, nor does

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Scripture anywhere teach that such a thing will happen. Remember the battlefield?

41:43

Go! Not feeling it? I'll give you another one.

41:54

This is from House and Ice. Get your weapons.

42:24

Go! Ready? More quotes. That optimism is a major error in post -millennialism.

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Both pre -millennialists and amillennialists believe just the opposite to post -millennialism, that spiritual and moral conditions in this world will get worse and worse as this present age draws to a close.

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There's the picture. You guys got it? And I know this is a lot to eat up right now in one message, but let me just tell you real fast,

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I'm gonna share this with you, and then I'm gonna give you the so what at the end of this message. I'm gonna give you a little burst at the end and so you get a feel for where we're going.

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I'm gonna give you some stuff to go to. Again, today this is the bird's eye view we're talking about right now. How are we gonna go about this?

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How are we gonna go about this? Number one, the scriptures are our ultimate standard, amen? We're gonna go to the scriptures.

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We're gonna go to the scriptures to see what does the scripture say. We're not gonna believe post -millennialism or that Jesus' kingdom is gonna be victorious in history.

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We're not gonna believe it because Jonathan Edwards believed it. Yes, he did.

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Yes, he did. You know, it's funny. Douglas Wilson, John Piper, and Sam Storms, I believe it was, did an eschatology roundtable discussing eschatology, and here was

43:52

Douglas Wilson's argument for post -millennialism that Jesus is gonna be victorious in history with his kingdom.

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He said, here's my argument for post -millennialism. Number one, Jonathan Edwards believed it, and number two, it's a lot of fun.

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I rest my case. We're not gonna believe post -millennialism because some of the biggest giants of Christian history have believed it, in the early church and then onwards, like Lorraine Bettner, who wrote one of the most delicious books on God's sovereignty.

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We're not gonna believe it even because a giant of the faith like Greg Bonson believed it. Yes, he did.

44:30

Yes, he did. We're not gonna believe it because modern guys like Douglas Wilson and Gary DeMar and Kenneth Gentry and Joel McDermott believe it.

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We wanna see what do the scriptures say. Now, I did that on purpose, obviously teasing. This is not something that is new.

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It really is very ancient, very old, but what is our standard? Sola, what?

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Scriptura, the scriptures alone. Not because of anybody, what they believe necessarily, but what does the scriptures say?

44:59

Number two, ready? How are we going about this? Ready? This is awesome. We wanna hear the entire symphony of scripture.

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Okay, listen to how I said that. We oftentimes don't think about it like that. We think about going to the Bible as grabbing a text here or grabbing a text there, and especially in Revelation, people will go, pull a text, pull a text, and just start making a whole system out of proof texting.

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Know this, ready? This is God's revelation of history. It's his story, not mine, not yours, not anybody else's.

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It's his story that brings glory to him, and I wanted to share this with you, ready? It is a symphony that you have to listen to.

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You have to hear the whole story working together with all the parts. You hear a symphony, right?

45:46

You hear this glorious symphony with all these different instruments. And by the way, I have no musical talent whatsoever, but I can appreciate what

45:54

I hear. If you're gifted in music, I'm a little jealous, and I am terrible, and I am an awful rotten singer.

46:01

And you better be glad that they're loud up there, because if you heard me, you wouldn't come to this church anymore. But the symphony of an orchestra coming together, it's amazing because when you listen to a symphony, all of it together is just this moment where it brings chills up your spine as an image bearer of God.

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Your heart gets full. You can hear a symphony, and when you hear the whole thing playing out, all the pieces together, and all the bursts, and all the subtle moments of rise and fall, when you hear that, your heart can fill, tears can fall from your eyes.

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That's how symphonies go. And you gotta think of all of scripture, God's story, his eschatology, as a symphony.

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And you really have to understand that oftentimes when you listen to a symphony, an orchestra will be pulling out this beautiful music all together, all in the right places.

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What's amazing, have you ever done this? When you listen to it, really any music, you can sometimes kind of pull back, and you can sort of pull out of focus all the other sounds to listen to only one distinct sound.

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And you can pull out of that sound for a moment, and you can listen to one distinct sound, right?

47:12

And you can pull out of that, and you can do that really through the whole thing. You can listen to all these distinct sounds. But what's amazing is how do you get the full blessing of the symphony?

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By listening to all of it come together. That's the story of scripture.

47:27

We're not gonna just take an idea pulled out of one place and just run that into the ground.

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We're gonna take all the pictures in scripture, creation, providence, the fall, redemption, revelation, consummation.

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We're gonna talk about things like the covenant that God makes, that he keeps, that really is underneath all of his story of redemption.

47:55

We're gonna talk about kingdom. Yes, the kingdom of Jesus that he brought in history, said he did, that is here now, and is filling the world.

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We're gonna talk about the victory of the Messiah. Wanna hear some more things we're gonna talk about?

48:10

This will get you excited. We're gonna talk about beasts in Revelation. We're gonna talk about whores riding seven -headed, 10 -horned beasts.

48:20

We're gonna talk about four horsemen bringing judgment. We're gonna talk about a mark of a beast.

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We're gonna talk about 666, better known today inaccurately as what?

48:34

666. We're gonna talk about a woman drinking blood. We're gonna talk about the heavens being shook by God.

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We're gonna talk about stars falling from the sky. We're gonna talk about God riding on a cloud, and ultimately, we're gonna talk about a world transformed by this

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Messiah. That's what we're gonna talk about. I wanted to share this with you.

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I didn't always believe this. I was raised not in a Christian home, so I didn't have a view of this, and I wanted to share this briefly with you, my story just for a moment.

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I wasn't raised in a Christian home. First Bible study I ever went to after I heard the gospel was not a Bible study. It was a movie.

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It was at a dude's house. I walk in. I know nothing. First Bible study in my personal history, and you know what it was?

49:23

It was an old, yucky, horribly made Christian film from the 70s on the

49:28

Tribulation. Secret Rapture, you know what I'm saying? Like, oh, where's my husband at?

49:34

He's gone, oh, and like, you know, and like all of a sudden, like Antichrist figures are coming with pitchforks, and like, oh, you know, like a little, like, you know, people were in devil costumes, and it was just awful, but I thought that was it, and when

49:46

I went to Bible college, let me let you know, that was my favorite thing, eschatology.

49:52

I got 100 % in bonus points in every class and every test I ever took. My favorite thing in the whole world,

49:58

I had every eschatology book from all the popular writers, Hal Lindsey, goodness,

50:03

I can't think of the names right now. They're popping out of my head. Hal Lindsey, Tim LaHaye, who's the guy on TBN that knows the whole, memorized the whole

50:10

Bible? Jack Van Impey, yeah, I used to watch, I used to turn on the news report on TBN, forgive me, okay?

50:18

Don't ever watch TBN, but I used to turn it on, and I just, oh, babe, we gotta get home tonight.

50:23

Why don't we get home? We gotta hurry, rush home, because it's seven o 'clock, Hal Lindsey's coming on, and I'm gonna hear what's happening in Israel. I went to Borders Books and Music every single week to make sure

50:32

I can get a copy of the Jerusalem Post, because you can get a copy of the Jerusalem Post at Borders. Just to see what was happening in Israel.

50:40

I used to freak my wife out, freak her out. I'd be like, babe, at any moment, any,

50:45

I used to wish myself into rapture. As a matter of fact, I remember one time distinctly being at a pool in Mesa, and I got the

50:53

Left Behind series, and I read the first book, and I remember that I'm sitting there in a pool, I was outside the pool,

50:59

I was outside the pool, I look up, I finish my, I close it, I was like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, and I look up, and I was like, now, now, now.

51:14

That's how freakish I was. I used to freak Candy out, my wife, and she would tell me, stop it, you're freaking me out, stop it, but babe, they got the

51:22

Red Heifer and the Cornerstone, the Jews are in the land, it's coming, babe, it's coming, and it, now, now.

51:29

Like, that was my life. So when I say that I, what happened to me one day was

51:38

I was telling a dude that I was talking to in Starbucks about the book of Revelation, and I was telling him all these things happen in the world, and I was saying, and that could be the locusts in Revelation, and I'm telling him all this stuff, and I fell under deep conviction that day.

51:55

I felt like the kind of thing as a Christian, you know what I'm talking about, when you're in sin, and you feel

52:02

God just challenging you, I felt like, that's familiar, I know that well. And I remember that I went home after talking, and I'm like, what was that?

52:13

So I remember I got before God, and I thought, whatever it is, God, that I said that was wrong, I've got to know.

52:19

I'm zeroing in, I'm like, you know what, it was when I was talking about Revelation and all that stuff, and I'm sure I felt conviction, deep conviction, and so I remember

52:27

I told God that day, I'll never forget it, I said, Lord, whatever it was, I wanna know, and I submit to you,

52:33

I take the blinders off, and correct me, I do not wanna speak falsely about what you say in your word, correct me.

52:41

And so what I did was this, guys, I committed to reading Revelation once a day, every day for 30 days.

52:46

By day four, I knew I was wrong. By day four, I knew that everything that I had thought was true couldn't be true.

52:52

I just saw in the text itself things that my system could not put there. And I thought to myself, all right,

53:00

God, what's going on? Am I losing my mind here? Am I becoming like a false teacher? Like, you know, am I becoming like a heretic?

53:06

And then as I do my studying, I realize, oh, okay, whew, okay, men of God throughout the church have seen exactly what

53:13

I'm seeing now. Oh, wow, some of my greatest heroes are seeing exactly what I see right here. And I began to see that, you know what,

53:19

I need to be able to come to the scriptures and say, no matter what I've been taught, no matter what I've always believed, no matter what I've cherished,

53:25

I have to be willing to be corrected by the scriptures, and I was, and listen, that correction didn't destroy my faith in God, it didn't ruin my intimacy with Jesus, it only brought it to a whole new beautiful place, and it caused me to see the world in a different way, and it's changed my life.

53:41

Eschatology matters. Okay, ready? I'm gonna end with this. Now that I've given you the big picture, the symphony, all of that, are you ready?

53:51

You say, what is it? Give me something to eat for the week, Jeff. What is it?

53:59

Well, it's based on the fact that, I can start here. This is an appropriate weekend,

54:06

Palm Sunday. Go to the text real fast. It's in Matthew, one of them,

54:12

Matthew 21. Matthew 21, and we're gonna finish up here and wrap it up.

54:19

Matthew 21. When they had approached Jerusalem and came to Bethpage at the

54:26

Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied there, and a colt with her, and tie them and bring them to me.

54:34

If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, the Lord has need of them, and immediately he will send them. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet.

54:41

Say to the daughter of Zion, behold, your king is coming to you, gentle and mounted on a donkey, even on a colt, the foal of a beast of bird.

54:51

The disciples went and did just as Jesus had instructed them and brought the donkey and the colt, and they laid their coats on them, and he sat on the coats.

54:58

Most of the crowd spread their coats in the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them in the road.

55:05

The crowds going ahead of him, and those who followed were shouting, are you ready? They're quoting from the

55:10

Old Testament, guys. Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the

55:17

Lord. Hosanna in the highest. When he had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, who is this?

55:25

And what's amazing here is you notice in that one text, you've got two quotations from the Old Testament. What's the first quotation?

55:31

The daughter of Zion, your king is coming to you. Who's coming to you guys?

55:37

The king. And amazingly, you see, Hosanna to the son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the

55:43

Lord. Understand this, are you ready? Remember I told you about that symphony of history? That whole thing being brought together?

55:50

This is a moment today, Palm Sunday. During the week of Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday was a day of anticipation finally coming to fulfillment.

55:59

Everything they had waited for, little Jewish boys, little Jewish girls being raised up in synagogue, going and learning the scriptures.

56:07

They were waiting in anticipation. You guys did the Seder with us last week, right? Passover, they were sitting at the table and doing

56:14

Passover, and they're waiting, and they're waiting, and they're doing the meal all the time, and they're just waiting for the time when

56:20

Messiah is finally gonna show up. And who was Messiah? He's the King. They were waiting for the

56:28

King who was gonna bring together not just this plan where people can go to heaven one day. It wasn't just that.

56:36

The Messiah wasn't just about punching your ticket for heaven one day. The Messiah was coming to bring in the new creation, to basically destroy the works of the devil, to bring the plan of redemption to fulfillment, to die for the sins of his people, to conquer death and rise from the dead.

56:54

And you ready? Are you ready to ascend on high?

57:00

Are you ready? Daniel 7. Go there real fast. Daniel 7. The story of redemption, the symphony coming together.

57:09

Daniel chapter 7. I know we've been there before, but I wanna have you guys go there so you see the text, so you know where we're going.

57:15

And I want you just to see this. Daniel chapter 7. And I want you to go to verse 13, and here's the prophecy nearly 600 years before the ascension of Jesus.

57:25

Are you ready for this, people of God? If you wanna know where we're going, I'm giving it to you right now. This is where we're going.

57:31

Daniel chapter 7. Listen to what it says. I kept looking in the night visions and behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming.

57:39

And he came up to the ancient of days. I need you to pay attention to the direction.

57:49

He came where? Daniel 7 gives a prophecy hundreds of years before the messianic figure comes.

57:58

Are you ready? This is what they were anticipating. Daniel 7, it says a son of man was gonna come up to the ancient of days.

58:05

And what was gonna happen? And was presented before him, and to him, this

58:10

Messiah, this son of man, as he came up to the ancient of days, it says, was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that, ready?

58:18

All the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away.

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And his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed. You wanna know where we're going? That's where we're going.

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This symphony of scripture was that Messiah was gonna come, the one that came lowly on that donkey as king that they were waiting for.

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He came, he died, he conquered death. And then what? They're waiting for that moment when this

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Messiah, this king, ascends to the father. And do you know this? There were 11 disciples there, very confused, very confused.

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11 disciples, not well -educated men, watching Daniel 7 happen right in front of them.

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The son of man coming up to the ancient of days. And what was the son of man gonna be given, guys?

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A kingdom, a dominion, so that what? What does the text say?

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What would happen? That all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might serve him.

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His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which will not pass away. And his kingdom, one which will not be destroyed. Do you know this?

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They read the Psalms. You know what, I have to confess something. Are you ready for this? I'm gonna get a little transparent moment here.

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Do you know why we're doing the Psalms before every service? You wanna know why? You're like, why are we doing the Psalms? Read one

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Psalm, every service. We just started that this year. Why are we reading one Psalm before every service? Do you know why?

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Because I knew we were gonna do this series. And not only are the Psalms the early church's hymnal,

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Jesus would have sang the Psalms as his hymnal, but the Psalms are all about God's victory in history.

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The Psalms give you numerous expressions of God's victory in history.

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What does God say in the Psalms? He tells the kings, kiss the son, or you perish when his wrath is kindled.

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What does the father say to the son in the Old Testament Psalms? What does he say to the

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Messiah in the Old Testament? Ask of me and I will give you the nations for your inheritance.

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And the question I always ask is this, saints, I always ask this, do you think that Jesus forgot to ask the father for the nations?

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Jesus came and what does he say? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. That means at fingertip, right there.

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Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. It's the gospel of the kingdom. It's the good news of the kingdom. This Messiah comes in the world and he says to the

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Jews, what, don't think you're gonna be able to say, see here or see there, for the kingdom of God is within you. And he says to the

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Jews, he says, here you go, if I cast out demons by the spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

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Did he? Yes. So what does it mean? If he cast out demons by the spirit of God, what's it mean about the kingdom of God?

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It had come upon them. Pilate asks him, are you a king? And Jesus says, yes, my kingdom is not of this world.

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And when Jesus talked about the kingdom of God, what does he say? He said, it's like a mustard seed.

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The small seed you can barely see in your hand, Jesus says. It's the mustard seed, you can barely see it.

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Jesus said, smallest seed. And Jesus said, when it plants into the ground, it grows into a large tree and the birds of the air nest in its branches.

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The kingdom of God was shown in the Old Testament or New Testament to be a kingdom that started small and would fill the whole earth.

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The book of Daniel, Daniel chapter two, talks about four major kingdoms coming before the Messiah's comes. And it said the

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Messiah's kingdom was gonna come, it would be like a stone cut out of a mountain, the small stone that rolled and eventually filled the entire earth.

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What we're looking forward to is this, Jesus, the Lord of lords and the king of what guys?

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To rule and reign as he is now over the entirety of the earth. And if the gospel would be like mustard seed to large tree, and the

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Messiah would bring his kingdom and would conquer the entire world with his gospel. What are we looking for?

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Ultimately this in the Psalms. Are you ready for this? I'm gonna give it to you right now. Easy to remember right now. You wanna know what it is?

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In a burst, in a sentence in scripture in the Psalms, this is it, are you ready? He shall have dominion.

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He is ruling and reigning now. Question to ask you, is Jesus seated now?

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Is he king of kings? Is he ruling and reigning now? He's been given the nations.

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What does he call us to do? Go get the sheep. Victory in history.

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So what? I'll leave you with this. Do you know what the dominant eschatology was of the church in America?

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Do you know what the dominant eschatology was? Optimism. They believed that the kingdom of God was gonna fill the whole entire world, that they needed to go get the nations and bring them to Jesus.

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And don't you find it interesting that when the Americans had a biblical worldview and eschatology of optimism, that it actually affected the view of the judiciary process.

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It affected their view of life. It affected their view of family and education and legacy.

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Isn't it interesting that as an eschatology of defeat begins to permeate the culture, that what happens to the culture, it's defeated.

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It begins to get destroyed and corrupted and why, ready? We're not being very salty and we're not being very much light.

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Why? Because many Christians are saying today, and I used to be one of them, hey, the worse it gets, the better it is for me.

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Because if it gets worse, it means that Jesus is gonna come at any moment while the rest of the world goes to hell in a handbasket around me.

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But Jesus asked us to pray a prayer. And what was it? Our Father in heaven, holied be your name, holied.

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Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Have you thought about the implications of the Lord's prayer that Jesus the King tells you to pray? You pray that the

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Father's name is holy throughout the world and that his kingdom comes, that it expands, that it fills the world and that his will is done.

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Are you ready? On where? Earth, as it is where? In heaven.

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Question, how much do you think, how rigorous do you think

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Christians are in heaven with the will of God? And Jesus tells you, pray like this daily, that God is holy throughout the world, that his kingdom comes and that his will is done on this earth as it is in heaven.

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Does Jesus the King expect the world to be transformed? He told you to pray for it. That's what he saw history being.

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So I'm excited, clearly I'm excited. So a couple things to encourage you guys to maybe go get some resources as you get ready as we do this series.

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Go to the American Vision, it's americanvision .com. Go to their section on eschatology and just grab some books.

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Grab some books on eschatology, give you some ideas. I'll give you a couple of recommendations now. He Shall Have Dominion, great book.

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He Shall Have Dominion is there. You can get books like The Last Days According to Jesus by R .C. Sproul, that's a good start as well.

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And we'll start there. We're gonna have some more resources for you guys, but I want you guys to get excited about this. And I want you to,

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I wanna ask you just one thing from you. Are you ready? Here's what I wanna ask of you. That you would come before God with a heart that's humble to say, what does the scripture say?

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That's it. That's all we have to do. Come to the scriptures in that way, amen? I'm excited guys.

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Thank you guys for joining us, pray. Father, thank you Lord for tonight and this time just to sort of give a touch in what we're gonna be doing.

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Thank you Lord for your word. Jesus, thank you Lord that you came in fulfillment of all that was said about you.

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Humble, riding on a donkey, the King of Israel, the King of the world, the

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King of Kings. You came Lord Jesus in fulfillment of all the promises that you Lord are the

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King and you reign now, you rule now. And Lord Jesus, that you are victorious and we look forward and long for the day where you will be exalted in all the earth, that your dominion will be from sea to sea, that all the nations will stream up to the mountain of God, that the world will be transformed because of your gospel of peace, you bringing salvation.

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Peace with you God will lead to an increase of peace in the world, in Jesus name, amen.